Mobile mast fight gains MP backing
Sep 1 2006
By Matt Smith
SOLIHULL MP Loreley Burt has added her weight to a campaign to stop a mobile phone mast being put up in Widney Manor.
Angry residents discovered letters from mobile phone company O2 on bank holiday weekend that an application for a 15-metre mast on Widney Lane close to the train station had been submitted.
The Solihull News reported in July that Austcliffe Road residents Carole Robertson and Clive Raybould took it upon themselves to stop the proposed plans by alerting 50 of their closest neighbours.
Now the duo have run off more than 300 leaflets and started a petition against the plan.
"We have already got a petition going," said Carole.
"But what makes me really angry is the tone of the letter from the planning department received on August 26 which said that the mast falls within a type of development that planning legislation permits without the need for planning permission," she added.
Lorely Burt MP has now written to planning chiefs at Solihull Council raising concerns over the proposed site for the mast and the poor level of consulatation.
She said: "I was phoned by a resident who told me notices had been received by a handful of residents and that they were delivered over bank holiday weekend, giving inadequate time to register objections.
"I have asked the chief planning officer to refer the application to the planning sub-committee bearing in mind the strength of local opposition. "I think that O2 should have another look at the location and see if they cannot site the mast a much greater distance away from local housing."
© owned by or licensed to Midland Weekly Media (Solihull) Limited 2006
http://tinyurl.com/gsqlw
By Matt Smith
SOLIHULL MP Loreley Burt has added her weight to a campaign to stop a mobile phone mast being put up in Widney Manor.
Angry residents discovered letters from mobile phone company O2 on bank holiday weekend that an application for a 15-metre mast on Widney Lane close to the train station had been submitted.
The Solihull News reported in July that Austcliffe Road residents Carole Robertson and Clive Raybould took it upon themselves to stop the proposed plans by alerting 50 of their closest neighbours.
Now the duo have run off more than 300 leaflets and started a petition against the plan.
"We have already got a petition going," said Carole.
"But what makes me really angry is the tone of the letter from the planning department received on August 26 which said that the mast falls within a type of development that planning legislation permits without the need for planning permission," she added.
Lorely Burt MP has now written to planning chiefs at Solihull Council raising concerns over the proposed site for the mast and the poor level of consulatation.
She said: "I was phoned by a resident who told me notices had been received by a handful of residents and that they were delivered over bank holiday weekend, giving inadequate time to register objections.
"I have asked the chief planning officer to refer the application to the planning sub-committee bearing in mind the strength of local opposition. "I think that O2 should have another look at the location and see if they cannot site the mast a much greater distance away from local housing."
© owned by or licensed to Midland Weekly Media (Solihull) Limited 2006
http://tinyurl.com/gsqlw
rudkla - 1. Sep, 18:15
