T-Mobile ready to build new masts after blunder

Aug 9 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

T-MOBILE has given a date for when it plans to start building mobile phone masts which were given the go-ahead through a council blunder.

Wirral council’s planning committee had refused permission for the company to build four phone masts across the borough, but the planning department never informed the company of the decision.

After the authority missed the deadline, the mobile phone giant was automatically given “deemed consent” to go ahead and build the unwanted phone masts.

The mistake by the planning department has caused a huge row within the council and some have even suggested the authority could face compensation claims.

After the problem was discovered, planners began working with the mobile phone company to find alternative sites – but planning applications for three of the four new sites they came up with were refused by the planning committee.

Now T-Mobile has told the council it intends to build the masts on the sites it had originally asked for – and been refused – in Hoylake Road, Moreton, Telegraph Road, Heswall and Pensby Road, Pensby, with work due to start on September 2.

A new location for the fourth mast in Claughton was accepted by planners and will also be built. But council managers have continued to come under fire, and Moreton councillor Chris Blakeley has now criticised them for what he describes as further failings in dealing with the issue.

Cllr Blakeley said he had asked to be told immediately when T-Mobile gave the council a date to begin work to instal the unwanted masts.

He said: “This is an unbelievably sorry state of affairs. At every possible opportunity, Wirral council has failed the people of this borough.

“The residents in Moreton affected by this fiasco don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

However, a Wirral council spokesman said the authority’s chief executive Steve Maddox “acted speedily when instructed to explore how an independent investigation could be best carried out”.

He said: “Mr Maddox treated this as a matter of urgency and put proposals to the cabinet on July 26. Following that meeting, discussions then commenced with the North West Local Government Employers Association to appoint an independent investigator.”

He added: “Wirral council received notification from T-Mobile on August 1. This was forwarded to Cllr Blakeley three working days later.”

liammurphy