Questions over Wirral phone masts blunders

Feb 13 2008 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

SENIOR council officials in Wirral will face tough questions next week after opposition parties forced a special meeting to examine how the authority blundered over planning permission for four phone masts.

It is almost a year since the planning permission for four T-Mobile masts were refused by the council’s planning committee, but “administrative errors” meant the company was not informed.

Because the council missed the 56-day deadline for telling the company they had rejected its planning applications, the permissions were actually granted.

The saga has dogged the authority for more than six months after it was forced to reveal the errors.

Wirral Council had tried negotiating with T-Mobile to agree alternative sites but three of these new locations were rejected by the planning committee.

As a result, T-Mobile said it would build the masts using the permission it had received “by accident” at Hoylake Road, Moreton, Telegraph Road, Heswall, and Pensby Road, Pensby.