Whitehall asked to stop erection of phone masts

Aug 18 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

THE Government is being asked to halt the building of three mobile phone masts which were accidentally given planning permission by Wirral council.

Frustrated with the authority’s lack of action since a blunder in the planning department, a borough councillor is now calling for ministers to intervene.

Cllr Sarah Quinn’s Pensby ward is one of three areas where phone giant T-mobile plans to build the controversial masts. Last night she revealed she had written to Secretary of State for Local Communities Hazel Blears calling for action.

Earlier this year the council revealed that although T-Mobile’s applications to build the masts had been rejected it had not told the company within the 56-day time limit required under planning laws.

It meant the phone operator automatically received planning permission and can legally proceed with building the masts.

Planners began working with the mobile phone company to find alternative sites after the problem was discovered. But applications for three of the four new sites they came up with were refused by the planning committee.

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 site for a fourth mast in Claughton was accepted by planners and will also be built.

Cllr Quinn said: “I have been fighting this phone mast since the original application came in and I am not going to stop now.

“I don’t see why the residents of Pensby should be the victims of this council officers’ blunder. The residents are the ones that will suffer for years to come if this phone mast is built.

“This phone mast should not be allowed to go ahead. The local residents don’t want it. The planning committee didn’t want it. T-Mobile should be prevented from building it.”

Legal experts have suggested the authority may have to pay compensation to residents living near the affected sites, and Moreton councillor Chris Blakeley has called for the council to take action to stop the masts.

Last month, Wirral Council’s cabinet ordered independent inquiry into how the blunder took place and the authority’s chief executive, Steve Maddox, has been asked to organise the appointment of an external investigator to carry this out.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said because it was an ongoing case she could not comment on it directly.

She said the Secretary of State had the power to revoke the planning permission but the case would be likely to end up going through the courts.

liammurphy