Mobile 'phone plan a ridiculous joke

FURIOUS residents have left mobile ‘phone giant O2 in no doubt about what they think of its new plan for a 57ft high telecommunications mast at Dudlows Green, Appleton.
The company’s regional communications manager, Tom Powell, was given a rough ride when he attended a pre-application consultation meeting arranged by Appleton Parish Council.
Angry residents said it was “insulting” and a “ridiculous joke” for the company to be applying for the mast only two months after being refused permission for an almost identical mast only a few yards away.
And they were furious when Mr Powell was unable to answer technical questions and said that his technical expert had been unable to attend the meeting.
Mr Powell told the meeting that O2 had entered into a partnership to share masts with Vodafone. But he could not explain why the company was seeking a new mast when planning consent already existed for a Vodafone mast nearby, which has never been installed.
One resident told him: “We don’t think you have taken seriously the reasons why the previous application was refused. We have an environment we treasure and we don’t want it scarred by a 15 metre high mast.”
Mr Powell said he would take away the views of residents and put them to the company’s experts.
The parish council indicated that if a new application was submitted they would oppose it.