Council tells mobile phone companies to share Birmingham masts
Mobile phone companies have been told to start sharing masts rather than ‘clutter’ the streets of Birmingham.
Planning committee members made the plea after giving the go-ahead for a second mast on a large grassy traffic island in Kingstanding. Orange will place its 12-metre mast and equipment cabinet, designed to look like a telegraph pole, next to a matching one owned by T-mobile on the junction of College Road and Witton Lodge Road.
Local Conservative campaigner Gary Sambrook, speaking against the mast, said there were too many masts in the area.
Planning officials said that with the T-mobile mast in place a precedent had been set and there were no grounds to refuse the mast.
Planning committee members had some sympathy with objectors and were particularly worried that this could mean a cluster of masts on a site. The committee voted by 12 to three in support of the mast.
