Proposal for 15-metre high 5G mast in Woolton Hill rejected

Plans for a 15-metre high 5G mast in Woolton Hill – which threatened to “completely destroy the visual amenity” of the local community – have been turned down.

Applicant Hutchison UK – widely known as Three – had been hoping to build the mast on the corner of Tile Barn Row and Woolton Hill Road.

Three had submitted the application after similar plans for an 18-metre high mast on the same site had been thrown out as the site was “within a visually prominent location” within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

However, despite reducing the size of the mast by three metres, borough council planning officers have once again refused the plans.

In its notice of refusal, officers once again said the site was in a visually prominent location in the AONB.

It added: “By virtue of the proposal’s scale, height and appearance, the proposed development would not positively contribute to the street scene, to the detriment of the visual amenity of the area and the rural characteristics of the area.

“Insufficient information has been submitted to evidence that the development would not give rise to highway safety issues at the junction with Tile Barn Row and Woolton Hill Road.”

The news will be welcome to East Woodhay parish councillors, who had objected to the mast on the grounds that it would “completely destroy the visual amenity which this location affords the local community”.

It had also argued that “5G signal propagation is very limited and wouldn’t cover the whole population of Woolton Hill even if a demonstrable need had been shown”.