Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
19
Mar
Government rejects 5G tower plan at Harrogate football pitch — again
The government has rejected plans to erect a 5G mast on a Harrogate sports pitch for a second time.
Mobile company EE appealed against North Yorkshire Council’s decision to refuse plans for a 25-metre mobile network tower on land at Pannal Ash Junior Football Club on Almsford Close in December 2025.
The plan proposed a shorter tower, which would provide 3G, 4G and 5G usage, as well as standard voice call services.
It also included plans to erect a 2.1-metre palisade fence with double three-metre gates at the site.
The operator wants to install the tower at the football club as its existing rooftop telecommunications site for the area is at Harrogate College, which is undergoing a £22 million redevelopment.
However, council officials refused the plan on the grounds that it would cause an “unacceptable level of harm to the character of the local area”.
The location of the planned tower compared with its previous facility.
In a statement to the government’s Planning Inspectorate, which deals with planning disputes, EE said the proposal was “significantly revised” from its previous plan and that it had already discounted 41 alternative sites because they were "unavailable or less desirable in terms of integration into their environment”.
However, F Harrison, a government planning inspector, has rejected the appeal on the grounds that it has “not been satisfactorily demonstrated” that the benefits of the mast could be provided on a “less harmful alternative site".
Their decision added:
Significant weight is afforded to the identified harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding area and the living conditions of neighbouring occupiers arising from the siting and appearance of the proposed development.
Accordingly, the harm is not outweighed by the need for the installation to be sited as proposed.
The decision is the second time a government planning inspector has rejected EE’s plans for a mast on the site.
In October last year, an inspector rejected plans for a 30-metre high 5G tower on the grounds that the operator had not demonstrated that the benefits of the mast would outweigh the harm of the scheme.
0