A 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 of Passage Road and Greystoke Avenue.
The phone mast will reach 65 feet, equivalent to the height of four giraffes. It will provide 4G and 5G coverage for both EE and Three, and will replace the existing 11.5-metre-tall phone mast, pictured. Bristol City Council refused permission for the new mast last September, but a government planning inspector overturned that decision on appeal. Updates were given during a development management A committee on Wednesday, August 9.
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 inspector, wrote: “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.”
By Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporter