READING Borough Council has rejected a telecoms company’s call for a 5G phone mast to be installed in a Caversham road.
Three wanted to build a 5G mast to improve connectivity for its customers in Kidmore Road, but 197 neighbours, plus local councillors, objected to it.
Paul Wigmore, who said the mast looked like it was something from HG Wells’ classic novel War of the Worlds, was relieved it had been turned down.
The 54-year-old who lives in Kidmore Road, said: “It’s a bit of a relief to be honest.
“It was a ridiculous proposal to have it put there, it was massively out of place and out of keeping with the area.
“There were a lot of people very concerned about it for a huge number of reasons.”
He said these included: “It’s incongruous, how out of place it would have been, and bad in terms of health. It also looked hideous.”
And there was concern about potential harm to nearby trees.
Reading Borough Council’s planning officers noted that Three had not conducted an assessment of the impact on trees.
There were also concerns the mast could impact drivers.
“It was in a really bad place, that piece of land provides a clear site line for Charlotte Close,” Mr Wigmore said. “Had the mast been put there, that would have gone
“The area where they were proposing to put the mast is in a dip where there have been a few crashes – at least two where the fire services have had to be called and people taken to hospital.
“To put the mast there would have made it way more dangerous.”
Three has a right to appeal the refusal to the government’s planning inspectorate.
“If they appealed I would be livid, it’s just not the right place for it,” Mr Wigmore said. “It’s quite clear they had not done their research about possible alternatives.
“There has got to be better places to put it.”
Ward councillors Paul Carnell and Isobel Ballsdon (both Conservative, Caversham Heights).
Cllr Carnell said: “Both Cllr Ballsdon and I were delighted that the application was rejected.
“While we fully support the roll out of 5G technology which we believe vital for Reading’s future prosperity the applications must be sympathetic to their location.
“We are particularly pleased for the residents who worked so hard for their neighbourhood that their objections were listened to and the application was refused.”
A spokesperson for Hutchison, Three’s owning company, said: “We want to offer the community in Caversham a reliable network experience and a site in this location is 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.
“We are considering the council’s reasons for refusal and assessing our options.”
