A leading borough councillor has warned that a decision to allow a mobile phone mast to be erected on a major road could ‘open the floodgates.’
Telecommunications giant Vodafone and Telefonica have won their battle to put up an 11.8 metres high mast on the corner of Kingswood Road and Penine Way, Nuneaton.
The borough council turned down the phone mast and also refused two others in Arbury Road, Stockingford, and at the corner of Bulkington Lane and Lutterworth Road at Whitestone.
But Vodafone and Telefonica took their case to the Planning Inspectorate at Bristol and an inspector has upheld their appeal.
Cllr Barry Longden, who represents Kingswood Ward on the borough council and is also a member of Warwickshire County Council, said: “They have now established a principle that could open the floodgates.
“We can’t go back and object, but they can now appeal the other two masts.”
He added: “I can’t imagine why this appeal has been upheld because even their engineers said it was on the wrong side of the road.
“It is a bit of a disapointment, but not totally unexpected.
“They have been trying to establish a principle and we will now have to wait and see what they will do next.
“But I am sure people will fight the masts one by one and force them to appeal one by one.”
People in Kingswood Road fear the mast will tower over them and be ‘visually intrusive.’
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 12:57 am