Vodafone is attempting to rush-through a planning application to position a 15m mobilephone mast (with its five attendant cabinets) in the Gardens.
The mast will not add to the coverage in the area, but rather be a substitute for the masts in the St Ann's hospital grounds. Given the development planned in that area, the owners of the land have cancelled their agreement with Vodafone.
There is some fairly strong legislation in place which heavily favours the mobile phone operators and, as such, the current application is not really an 'application'.
It is a 'Prior Notification' of their intention to build the mast. In theory, as long as Vodafone ticks the right boxes and fill in the right forms, the Council is in a difficult position if it wants to defend residents.
In this case, the 'consultation' has been farcical and the reasoning for selecting the site is specious, at best.
There are VERY few such masts placed in residential streets in this borough, and allowing this one could open the door for Vodafone and other operators to put one in your street.
We need numbers to put pressure on the Council to reject this notification.
Please object here in the next couple of days. Submissions need to be received before the 18th. Just a few lines, or copy/paste one of the other submissions.
Zena is helping as a local Councillor, but there also needs to be a strong response from individuals.
Tags for Forum Posts: O2, Vodafone, mast, mobilephone, planning
As someone who worked in or around the telecommunications sector, I have often thought that there is an inevitable tension between the growing popularity of mobile communication services and the unpopularity of the infrastructure needed to make it all work. I think I am right in saying that when mobile communications started in UK there were only three masts in the entire country. This service used VHF radio which worked over a long range but there were only a few thousand telephones - mostly in Rolls Royce cars. Later generations of technology have served progressively more and more telephones (now perhaps nearing 50 million) and each generation of radio used higher and higher frequencies which worked over shorter and shorter ranges. In summary, this means more and more masts are required to provide the services that people want. This is especially true in densely populated areas and where the customers want fast internet access from tiny portable devices. I don't know how close we would all need to be to a mast if we all wanted to use 4th generation smart phones but it might already be as little a kilometer. In short, I suspect that the proliferation of masts is likely to increase. Hiding masts may seem a good idea but buldings do hinder the radio signals so you would have the best chance of having good service if you could actually see the mast. This also means that flat areas with dense housing are best served by a mast that sticks up a bit. I happen to live on a highish spot of Harringay and have never had a problem with mobile reception (from O2) but I don't have a 4th generation phone yet so things might change. At present, my service probably comes from one of the masts in Green Lanes on top of the buildings just north of the Salisbury. They are not beautiful but they are not as ugly as the road traffic and all the parked cars. Also, they are not dangerous.
Vodafone (a company which I do not like) needs to do its planning properly and comply with the rules and might even be bounced into a more creative solution (the masts disguised as trees have never struck me as better to look at). It does however have to work properly so let's hope that wherever the thing ends up, the people in the area do get better mobile service.
Far sighted regulation can enable corporations profit without evil. We can have fast, ubiquitous services without stuff hurting the eyes and maybe the brain, so let's not let telecoms get away with the idea that there is no alternative (WiMax anyone?).
Whatever happened to Boris's promise to put wifi on every London lampost?
I haven't seen anything here about the dangers of electromagnetic pollution around phone masts, a well-documented problem which can affect health of people who are living next to one and subject to this unremitting pollution with no possibility of getting away from it. Masts should be sited in places that people visit from time to time, not right next to their bedrooms.
Yes just received email saying that the council is refusing planning permission. Well done everyone. I hope this is an end to it.
RESULT!
I just got a letter from the "Development Management Officer" telling me permission has been refused
I should think that many of you have had the same message and good on all of us for writing in about it. We have to remember, though, that the company will have to place the monopole somewhere. We all get annoyed when our phone reception breaks up.
As I said in a previous posting, wherever it goes, it should not be next to where people cannot escape from it--i.e. houses.
Lydia Rivlin — so nauseated by vote rigging in the wards, venality in the Council, shenanigans in the Planning Department and disorganisation in the Social Services, that I signed up to fight it all by becoming a Conservative candidate in the May elections. One thing about the Tories—they haven’t been corrupted by power round here.
No just link to letter refusing Vodaphone planning permission. Can't see any other letter.
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