Victory for campaigners after Beacon Fell phone mast plan cut off

Preston City Council planning notice sign. Area taped off separately to show spread of proposed development

A bid to install a 40-metre-high phone mast close to the summit of one of Lancashire’s most popular beauty spots has failed.

Preston City Council has refused permission for the controversial kit, which mobile infrastructure firm Cornerstone had wanted to erect on Beacon Fell in Goosnargh.

The authority’s planning officers said the proposed development would be “detrimental to the character and appearance” of what is “a landmark feature within the skyline”.

Joanna Sebborn, who lives in the shadow of the hill – part of the Forest of Bowland area of outstanding natural beauty – mounted a campaign against the proposal after the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed the details in January.

Concerned that the only reason there had not been more opposition to the prospect of the mast was because those who use the fell were unaware of it, she spent days at the site leafleting locals and visitors from further afield. She even made a mock-up model of the mast in an attempt to attract public attention – and found most people she spoke to were horrified at the structure that might be set to spring up at the bucolic spot.

Her efforts led to more than 3,000 people signing a petition objecting to the lattice-style tower, which would have stood 10 metres taller than the trees surrounding it – and required five of them to be chopped down altogether.

Joanna said the public response – which also included the submission of 123 written objections to the town hall – may well have “made all the difference”.

“I’d like to think the council might still have seen how ridiculous it was, but who knows whether the points people made helped to tip the balance?

“A lot of people on social media said we’d never win and that [the application] would just go through, but I couldn’t just sit back and wait and see. I at least had to try to make sure as many people as possible knew about it and could make up their own minds.

“I hope this gives others the confidence that they can oppose things they don’t want in their own area – and they can win,” Joanna added.

The Cornerstone scheme was part of a nationwide effort to improve mobile reception and 4G broadband coverage in rural areas.

However, Joanna maintained that there was no need for it, because locals had invested in bringing high-speed connectivity to the village via the specialist provider, Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN).

In the report outlining the reasons for its decision, Preston City Council said local authorities cannot “question the need for an electronic communications system” – and acknowledged official mapping indicated that indoor signal to the north and east of the 266 metre-high Beacon Fell is poor. But the authority noted that the area is “covered by both good outdoor mobile signal and ultrafast broadband”, meaning it considered the benefits of the proposal to be “minor”.

In assessing the impact of the mast on the landscape, the decision notice stated: “The proposal would cause significant harm to the important characteristics of Beacon Fell, its undeveloped openness and wide visibility.”

The city council also warned of the potential impact of the 3.2 metre-wide access route that would have to be created to enable construction traffic to reach the site – an element of the project which would require separate permission and “would likely require additional trees to be removed” to the five already earmarked for felling.

Just two people wrote to the council in support of the plans.

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