Giant 20-metre-tall 5G phone mast coming to Westbury
The original refusal by the council has now been overturned
A giant 20-metre-tall 5G phone mast is coming to Westbury-on-Trym after a refusal decision was overturned on appeal. MBNL, a mobile telecommunications operator, now has planning permission to install the phone mast on a corner in the leafy north Bristol suburb.
The phone mast will reach 65 feet tall, equivalent to the length of a cricket pitch or the height of four giraffes. It will provide 4G and 5G coverage for both EE and Three, and will replace an existing 11.5-metre-tall phone mast.
Bristol City Council refused permission for the new mast last September, but a government planning inspector overturned that decision on appeal earlier this month. Updates were given during a development management A committee on Wednesday, August 9.
Peter Westbury, planning coordinator, said: “This was an appeal following on from a refusal for a 20-metre-tall telecoms mast on the grass verge at the junction of Passage Road and Greystoke Avenue. The inspector allowed the appeal and granted permission for this mast. The inspector took the view that as this was replacing an 11.5-metre-tall mast, it was part of the street furniture and therefore allowed the appeal.”
The council had initially refused permission due to the height of the new mast which would introduce “an unacceptable amount of incongruous, unsympathetic, obtrusive and highly prominent street clutter”. But in the written decision, the planning inspector said larger phone masts are becoming increasingly common.
H Davies, the planning inspector, said: “The proposed monopole, with antennae towards the top, would be significantly greater in height than the existing vertical structures as well as being wide. Despite this, such telecommunications installations are an increasingly common and expected sight in built up areas and on verges of well-used roads such as this.”