Plungington street set to get second mobile phone mast to help cope with demand

A second mobile phone mast is set to spring up in a Preston street in an attempt to boost coverage in an area of the city where existing facilities are “struggling to cope with demand”.

Plans have been revealed for the 20-metre-high pole on Eldon Street in Plungington.

The so-called “base station” – complete with six antennae, a transmission dish and four cabinets – would be located just yards from an existing piece of mobile infrastructure.

Telecoms firm Cornerstone has asked Preston City Council whether the authority considers that it will have to give “prior approval” for the siting and appearance of the facility.

The mast is intended to improve the area’s 3G, 4G and 5G capacity – with the latter, in particular, enabling faster and more responsive connections.

With the exception of the nearby Fishwick Rangers community centre, the proposed location sits largely within a largely industrial area of commercial business units.

In documentation submitted to the local authority, Cornerstone says that it ruled out modifying the existing mast on Eldon Street because it would have to be widened and made at least 12 metres taller – and so would have “a significant impact” on the area, which the benefits of the proposal “would not outweigh”.

A range of other locations in the vicinity were considered but ruled out for reasons including not being suitable to generate the desired boost in coverage and being more visually prominent.

In its planning application, the company notes that existing sites within the wider Ashton on-Ribble area are under pressure and the new kit is needed to provide “reliable, high-quality” mobile services from the mobile operator that will run it. The operator does not appear to be named within the application, which is made by Cornerstone itself.

The company states: “The radio base station will also meet the extra demands on the network in this area as more people use internet-enabled handheld devices.

“It is a densification project for the operator’s network to fill holes in service provision including coverage and capacity. This will enable the operator’s customers to be able to use their handheld devices without calls being dropped or buffering occurring where there is a gap in the operator’s network coverage and capacity ability.

“A site in this location will fill the gap in service provision and provide high quality, reliable, advanced 3G, 4G and 5G to this urban area of Ashton-on-Ribble.”

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