An Aberdeenshire landowner has claimed he is being “bullied” by a telecom provider that pays to use his land for one of their phone masts.
David McLean, 74, and his 70-year-old wife Monica live at the edge of Maud and own land next to their house, where they have cows and sheep.
Their son and grandsons help to farm the land and it is on that land that Cellnex UK hosts a phone mast by On Tower UK Limited, which Mr McLean gave the go-ahead for in 2002 in order to prepare for retirement.
Mr McLean said: “When we put it up there, they were only allowed the mast and the first ones were 02. If there’s any other ones added to it, then they had to pay more money, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside.
“There was no bother with 02 at all, they just paid the going rate and it went up a little bit with inflation”
Mr McLean, who along with his wife owned the village’s Station Hotel for 14 years, claims the phone mast is being “sublet”, however, a Cellnex UK spokeswoman told The P&J that this is “incorrect”.
The firm says they are offering to pay a rate that ‘fairly compensates the landowner’.
Originally from Orkney, the McLeans have lived in Maud for more than 40 years, and claims there was “no problem” with payments until the company took over the running of the mast in 2017.
‘Telecoms firms trying to pull wool over our eyes’
“They were offering me peanuts and there’s no need for it. They’re trying to bully us,” the farmer said.
“That’s the simple thing, if they want to rent a bit of ground, then they have to pay for it,” adding that he does not want to be in a 10-year agreement in case he wants to “diversify” his land, i.e. by putting in wind turbines.
Mrs McLean said: “They’re just trying to pull wool over our eyes.”
After an agreement could not be reached between the landowners and Cellnex, things reached a head when the dispute went to a land tribunal.
An initial “phone-in” took place in October, with an in-person tribunal taking place in Edinburgh on January 16 to determine whether the contract had ended.
Mr McLean claims he was offered £850 by the telecom provider for it not to go to a tribunal, but he refused this offer, as well as the opportunity to get representation by a solicitor due to the high costs involved.
He added: “They’ve been trying to get an agreement, but I just kept saying no. I just want them to pay what they normally pay per go.”
Cellnex represented in telecom dispute
Cellnex UK were represented at the land tribunal by international law firm Pinsent Masons, who have an office in Aberdeen.
Prior to the trial and his wife were sent the exact same documents (on different days) from Pinsent Masons of previous cases the firm were involved in, which included one from 1954 about a divorce case involving “cruelty”.
The Aberdeenshire resident said: “What am I worried about somebody getting divorced for cruelty, what’s the point of sending me that, what am I worried about that for?”
“When I started reading that rubbish, I thought what’s that all about? It’s corporate bullying really.”
He did phone the solicitors to discuss this and he says they apologised to him.
A spokesman for Pinsent Masons said: “Unfortunately as it is an ongoing matter, we won’t be able to comment.”
Maud telecom dispute ‘stressful’
Mrs McLean said the tribunal was “just a lot of legal jargon” and although Mr McLean is “not bothered” about it going to court, he does acknowledge that it has “got out of hand”, is “annoying” and “costs money”.
Mrs McLean added: “It is stressful and at this time of life we’re not needing it.”
A spokeswoman for Cellnex UK told The P&J: “We are sorry that Mr and Mrs McLean feel they are not getting enough rent for this mast which provides a vital communications network for the local community.
“The lease at Mr and Mrs McLean’s site expired in 2020, requiring a new lease to be put in place. Since the original lease was entered into, parliament has introduced new legislation in relation to the rents to be paid for communications sites – the Electronic Communications Code.
“This has resulted in lower rents on most sites, but at a level that fairly compensates the land owner for the use of their land.
“The policy change is designed to enable greater investment by operators in communications services in the UK. Cellnex UK has taken a proactive approach to try and reach a beneficial outcome with Mr and Mrs McLean.
‘Mr McLean has not accepted any offers of assistance in dispute’
“We have been in direct contact with Mr McLean to offer a higher rent payment which exceeds the amount we consider he would be entitled to under the Electronic Communications Code and continue to try and reach a consensual deal with him.
“We have also offered to both contribute towards professional representation for Mr McLean and for one of our agents to meet him on the site to try to alleviate his concerns and reach a solution.
“At present, Mr McLean has not accepted any offers of assistance.”
