Appeal lost after Prenton 5G 'monstrosity' mast refused

Local residents had "worked hard and came together as a community" to fight plans for the 20-metre high 5G mast on Prenton Hall Road, submitted by CK Hutchison Networks and described by campaigners as a "monstrosity".

They petitioned, wrote letters and composed emails to object to the mast and associated equipment cabinets, which they regarded as "detrimental to health". As a result, the proposal was refused and stopped at its first planning stage in February.

CK Hutchison Networks had lodged an appeal against the council's decision to reject its proposal, but it emerged this week that this had been rejected too.

The planning committee's reason was for rejection of the proposal was, as follows: "The proposed development, by virtue of its siting and appearance, would be unduly prominent in the street scene, leading to a detrimental effect on visual amenity and the character of the area.

Banner opposing the phone mast in Prenton (Image: Diane Carey)

"Having regard to the limited justification put forward for the location of the development, the economic and social benefits of improved mobile connectivity are outweighed in this instance by the harm to amenity arising from the location of the mast.

"As such, the application fails to comply with saved policy TE1 of the Wirral Unitary Development Plan and the objectives of the National Planning Policy Framework."

Local resident Diane Carey is among the campaigners.

She told the Globe today: "I cannot stress enough that it is beyond madness that councils are signed up to carbon reduction targets, yet they are allowing the deployment, across Wirral, of these power-hungry microwave masts that heat up the water molecules in the air causing real global warming, and against the public’s wishes is absolute and complete utter madness.

Campaigners at the site of the proposed mast on Prenton Hall Road earlier this year (Image: Craig Manning / Newsquest)

"We also are fully aware the mono pole is uninsurable because of the structural non-integrity of it and no  Environmental Impact Analysis has been done.

"The rollout of 5g right across Wirral must be halted to protect all residents from this uninsured harm."

The campaigners were joined in their fight by local Green Party councilors together with Alan Dollery of the Prenton Tenants Association, whose support was praised as "invaluable".

A spokesperson for Three UK, CK Hutchison Networks parent company, said: "5G rollout is vital for residents and businesses of Prenton. We want to offer the community a reliable network experience and our planners determined that this site was required to deliver it.

“While we try to keep mast sites as unobtrusive as possible, they do need to be situated near to where people will be using the service and, in many cases, in precise locations to ensure the widest breadth of coverage. We will consider the reasons for refusal carefully and consider our options."