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24
Oct
Government rejects 5G tower plan at Harrogate football pitch
A government planning inspector has rejected plans for a 30-metre high 5G tower on a Harrogate sports pitch.
Mobile network operator EE planned to build on land at Pannal Ash Junior Football Club because its existing rooftop telecommunications site for the area is at Harrogate College, which is due to undergo a £22 million redevelopment.
It applied to to North Yorkshire Council to erect a lattice tower surrounded by a 2.1-metre-high palisade fence on land at Almsford Close.
The proposed tower would provide 3G, 4G and 5G usage, as well as standard voice call services, the operator said.
However, in July, council planning officers refused the plan on the grounds that the tower would be "overbearing", “cause an unacceptable level of harm to the character of the local area” and “appear visually dominant and intrusive”.
As a result, the mobile network operator took the decision to the government’s Planning Inspectorate, which deals with planning disputes, and argued that the proposed location was “acceptable”.
The location of the planned tower compared with its previous facility.
Now, a government planning inspector has turned down the appeal.
In a decision notice published this week, M Clowes, a planning inspector, said the operator had not demonstrated that the benefits of the mast would outweigh the harm of the scheme.
They said:
The significant harm that would be exerted on the character and appearance of the area would not therefore be outweighed by the need for the installation to be sited as proposed and its associated benefits. Whilst I acknowledge the benefits of the scheme in general terms, it has not been robustly demonstrated that the circumstances in this instance, justify allowing the scheme.
The inspector added that information about why 41 alternative sites had been discounted for the mast was “very limited”.
Revised plans refused
Meanwhile, North Yorkshire Council has also refused a separate application for a shorter 5G mast on the site.
In September, EE lodged a revised plan for a 25-metre mobile network tower at the site — one month after it appealed its previous refusal.
However, council planners have rejected the revised plan on the grounds that it will cause an “unacceptable level of harm to the character of the local area”.
The authority added that the mast would “appear visually dominant and intrusive” to the local area.
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