Crown residents left out of the loop over mobile mast plans

Residents angry as proposed site is close to play area and skate park

Published:

AIRWAVES ROW: Residents are concerned over plans for a phone mast near a Scout hut in the Crown area of Inverness. David Whittaker-Smith

Residents in an Inverness community claim they were not consulted about plans to erect a mobile phone mast close to a children’s play area and scout hut.

Telecommunications giant O2 submitted plans to put up the mast on land to the north-east of the hut at Kingsmills Road, in the Crown area of the city, last month.

The proposed location is also close to a play area and skatepark in Walker Park, opposite the Kingsmills Hotel.

It has now emerged that permission had been granted to Vodafone earlier this year for a 50ft mast, while the recent application was for a 10ft extension.

The mast would be shared by the two mobile phone companies.

Crown Community Council chairwoman Pat Hayden said residents were not consulted about the original proposal because of its location.

She said: “As the site is on the opposite side of the road from the scout hut, no neighbour notification was necessary, as there is no resident living within a 60ft zone.”

The planning sub-group of Crown Community Council has now met to discuss the application, with a letter subsequently being sent to David Polson, Inverness area planning and building standards manager.

The letter said: “As the current application is an amendment to an existing plan, we do not see any grounds for objecting to this.

“We would, however, like the following comments to be noted. We are extremely concerned that we were not consulted at the time of the initial application, which was passed in April this year.

“This raises concern as to the procedure adopted at this time.”

Crown residents have previously fought off a bid to instal telecommunications equipment at the Corrie- garth Hotel in Heathmount Road.