Plans for towering 5G masts are causing 'pain' to chiefs in Tameside after council rejections were overturned at appeal.

Tameside Council’s head of planning, Melanie Hale, told a recent meeting that she was ‘disappointed’ to find that the planning inspectorate had disagreed with the authority’s decision to refuse permission for a 15m high monopole in Denton.

Town hall officers had ruled that the proposal for the pole and power cabinet on Hyde Road would be ‘visually incongruous’.

They stated it would have an ‘unacceptable impact on the appearance of the locality, appearing much taller than surrounding street furniture and buildings on a prominent road resulting in a detrimental impact on the character of the surrounding area’.

However the applicant, CK Hutchison Networks (UK) Ltd had argued that high-speed mobile connectivity is the ‘lifeblood of a community’ and it would not be ‘detrimental’ to the street scene.

In its supporting statement the company said: “The very nature of installing new 5G mast infrastructure within such an urban setting requires a highly considered balance between the need to extend practical coverage reach with that of increasing risk of visual amenity intrusion.

“In this location, existing mast sites are not capable of supporting additional equipment compliment to extend coverage reach across the target area and prospective ‘in-fill’ mast sites are extremely limited.

“There is an acute need for a new base station to provide effective service coverage and in this case, the height of the proposed street pole is the minimum required to bring the benefits of 5G to this area.”

The plans for the 5G mast in Denton. Photo: CK Hutchison Networks (UK) Ltd. 

After the council rejected the application last October it went to a planning appeal, which, it was announced this month, the company won.

In his decision, planning inspector David Jones acknowledged that the pole would be ‘significantly taller, bulkier and more prominent’ than existing features on the road, and it would be ‘harmful’ to the character of the area.

However he concluded that the ‘moderate harm’ would be outweighed by the social and economic benefits of the proposal.

Ms Hale told councillors that ‘masts are being a pain at the moment’.

“We’re receiving at the moment a lot of applications for fifth generations telecoms masts,” she said.

“Now unlike the third and fourth generation they don’t cover an area as widely which is why we’re getting more applications for these types of infrastructure.

“Council refused approval of this on the basis that the siting and appearance of the mast wasn’t acceptable in that particular location.

“The inspector decided that there was moderate harm in the siting and appearance of the masts in that area but the social and economic benefits of having 5G coverage and the fact that the applicant had gone through a site search meant that that outweighed that harm and the appeal was therefore allowed.

“We’re quite disappointed in this. We’re currently looking at site and appearance in these types of applications and we’ve had a few where we as council have refused permission but they’re being overturned, I think on the basis that the 5G coverage is more important.”

Councillor Vincent Ricci added: “You’re not as disappointed as the fellow who lives in a house right outside.”

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