Furious villagers have blasted a telecoms company after it placed an ‘absurd’ 40ft 5G mast blocking shops in the middle of the pavement.
Residents of Marske-on-Sea, North Yorkshire, raged at the firm Three after its contractors finished work on the ‘eyesore’ mobile phone mast earlier this week.
They said the pole – which has a wiring unit measuring around 4ft long – had stopped drivers from seeing businesses on Hummershill Lane.
Others called the decision to plant the huge mast on a stretch of footpath ‘atrocious’ – adding: ‘Who on earth thought that was the right location?’
Redcar and Cleveland Borough councillor Tristan Learoyd said telecoms companies were allowed to place the poles on public land without planning permission.
But he said the firms had used this right to put profits before communities – as they sought to widen the reach of their networks.
He said: ‘The legislation encourages masts to be put in these absurd positions and that’s exactly what’s happened with this mast.
‘If they had just moved it 10m [33ft] in one direction, they could have put it into a park area, where it would have been away from the pavement.
‘Alternatively, there’s an area which is pretty much just scrubland.
‘But if they had put it on that private land, they would have had to go through a bit more of a rigorous planning process and, in addition, they would have had to pay the private owner for placement on that land.
‘They are maximising profit. I don’t think they even have a consideration with regards to the public and the placement of masts.’
Tristan explained that Three had been allowed to erect the mast as it had ‘permitted development rights’.
This lets telecoms companies build or alter certain types of communications infrastructure on public land without applying for formal planning permission.
It is understood that a pre-application consultation was carried out by Three with the Redcar and Cleveland Council local ward councillors.
While Saltburn, Marske and New Marske Parish Council was also consulted by the firm – and did not object to the proposal.
But Tristan said local officials had relatively few powers to prevent the huge masts from going up on a dwindling number of publicly owned patches of land.
He said: ‘It leads to a situation where essentially only the pavements are available or left for mast companies to install their masts.
‘They look on the map and say, “Where are we going to get the best reception,” and in this instance it was outside a pizza shop, obstructing a business.’
Tristan said Soprano’s Pizzas, which is just opposite the newly finished mast, would likely suffer financially as it was now partially hidden from passing traffic.
He went on: ‘The effect on Soprano’s is going to be negative because it reduces the visibility of their shop from the road.
‘There’s a big wiring unit in front of the property and the unit is about 1m 20cm tall.
‘So if you’re in a car and you drive by, you don’t see the shop. So it will have an effect on them… If you were driving past now, you are likely to miss it.’
A Three spokesperson defended the pole’s placement, saying they had to erect the masts in areas that would ‘ensure the widest breadth of coverage’.
They said: ‘5G rollout is vital for residents and businesses of Marske.
‘We want to offer the community a reliable network experience and this new site will be critical to making that happen.
‘While we try to keep mast sites as unobtrusive as possible, they need to be situated where people will be using the service and, in many cases, in precise locations to ensure the widest breadth of coverage.’
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