5G is coming to Weymouth
Dorset Council agrees to plans for a 5G telecoms mast.
Concerns over health and ‘visual clutter’ have failed to persuade Dorset Council not to back plans for a 5G telecoms mast for the Weymouth Way at Radipole.
The 18-metre mast, which councillors decided can now be put up without the need for full planning permission, will support six mobile phone antennas and bring 5G to the area.
It will be built on the grass verge near the Manor Roundabout off Greenways Road and will include cabinets for technical equipment at its base. Other, smaller, masts are already in the area, one of which will be removed when the new mast is fully operational.
Objections included fears that rays from the mast could be harmful to people’s health, including children at the nearby school, and that having three masts in place near the roundabout would be unsightly.
The area planning committee heard on Thursday that planning officers were backing the new mast at the location because no better site could be found.
Among the objectors was Mary Jordan-Winter who told the committee that the mast and its associated cabinets “would give a cluttered look to the gateway to Weymouth.”
She said that residents were unhappy about what she saw as a lack of consultation, apart from a small notice on a lamppost, although it had been advertised online and was mentioned in a news report circulated by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, as well as being discussed at Weymouth Town Council.
Another objector, Roma Harding, said that the town should not be test ground for the technology which, she claimed, had yet to be proven to be safe, although the mast operators deny this, saying that it meets all national standards.
Vicky Parson, agent for the operating company, told the committee that without 5G the Weymouth area would fall further behind the rest of the country and that the mast would bring a faster and more reliable technology, as well as carrying 4G and 3G signals.