A Cardiff resident is outraged at plans for a "towering" 18-metre 5G mast to be built right next to his garden wall - so close he can "almost touch it". Jonathan Furminger, who lives in Canton, said the "oppressive" mast will impact his family's quality of life, as he believes it will "dominate" the view from his back windows and create noise.
The resident has pointed out that the mast, which is planned for Sanatorium Road, could potentially be the fourth one concentrated around a single junction. He is concerned that the mast and its cabinets will take space from the pedestrian footpath it would be built on, and believes not enough has been done to assess and mitigate the impact of the mast on the local community. He also thinks residents have not been adequately notified about the proposals.
CK Hutchison Networks UK Ltd, more commonly known as Three, submitted an application in April for 'prior approval' for the mast, which will have cabinets around it. Telecommunications proposals, such as mobile telephone masts, are considered to be permitted development under Welsh Government policy. You can read all our Cardiff stories here.
This means that no planning permission is required to build them. But telecommunications companies must still make an application to see if their plans need prior approval. If prior approval is required, the local planning authority - in this case, Cardiff Council - would then have to determine as a second stage whether the application is going to be approved.
The council explained: "If an application does require ‘prior approval’, the council is only able to assess its suitability in relation to the proposed location and the external appearance of the mast. The application cannot be refused unless it is deemed to have a ‘significant impact’ on the local area, and this impact cannot be mitigated."
The council sent local residents, including Mr Furminger, a letter on May 5 informing them about the application and inviting them to submit comments on it within 21 days. On the junction of Sanatorium Road/Broad Street and Heol Terrell, there is an existing 4G mast., as well as an O2 5G mast. Vodafone have carried out a pre-planning consultation for another 5G mast on the north-west corner, so Three's mast could potentially be the third fourth mast at the junction.
Three explained it is "vital" that the mast is built in the area to keep its customers and businesses connected in Canton, as the existing masts in the vicinity are owned by other companies. Mr Furminger said he does not want the proposal overturned, but is calling for the structure to be relocated. He is garnering support for his campaign via a dedicated website and petition, so that people can submit objections to the application before the deadline of May 26.
Explaining his objections, he told WalesOnline he thinks the mast will "ruin our enjoyment of the garden", especially in the summer months when he and his family sit outside. He said: "[The mast] will literally be the first thing we see. If we sit in the back garden, we can almost touch it over the wall. It’s literally towering over the garden - it's 18m tall. We have a three storey town house and it’s taller than the house.
"It’s going to be horrible. Not only is it going to tower over us, it’s also oppressive. When we look out the back bedroom windows, it’s going to dominate the view." He is also concerned about the noise from the cabinets next to the mast, adding: " A neighbour who lives across from us says they can hear the existing 5G mast and they’re further away from it."
But Three assured that modern fans are very quiet, and said that if a resident does have a complaint, there is a complaint procedure followed by the council. Mr Furminger also doesn't think enough has been done to notify residents of the plans. "I did a leaflet drop around the estate - 100 leaflets round to all the neighbours - and lots of people are saying they never got notified about it, and they only found out through my leaflet drop," he said.
"I h ad a look at the previous application that went in for the previous [5G] mast - they’d only informed five of the residents about that." Three said it is up to the planning department to decide which residents to consult. Cardiff Council said that as well as sending local residents a letter, it had put up a site notice in the local area to notify them about the application for Three's mast.
The mast is set to be built on a pavement that has received public funding to be made a safer route. With two schools and a nursery in the vicinity, Mr Furminger noted that there is lots of pedestrian traffic on the footpath. He said: "[The mast] is not going to take up a huge amount of space, but it's the principle of it - pa vements are for people to walk on. [The council] are trying to encourage people to cycle and walk. I don't think it’s right for mobile phone company to come in and to take away space."
He also pointed out that, according to the submitted planning documents, the design technician had not visited the site as part of their assessment. "I'm concerned that they’re doing this remotely without coming to take a look and see how it’s going impact the local area," he said. Three said that all mast applications it submits are designed with accessibility in mind, and said it will be working with the highway authority to ensure any impact on pedestrians is minimal.
Mr Furminger's objections were echoed by Canton Councillor Stephen Cunnah. The agent for the development solicited Cllr Cunnah's comments on the proposal ahead of submitting the application for prior approval, and he shared the invitation with about a dozen local residents, including Mr Furminger, who also sent objections ahead of the application.
Following the submission of the application, Cllr Cunnah intends to repeat his objections to the local planning authority - as well as the fact he believes the pre-planning consultation was not carried out correctly, as he claims the developer did not respond to his comments before submitting an application, nor address them in any document for prior approval.
He told WalesOnline: "I want to very clear - I'm not opposing 5G. My objections aren't based on health concerns - I personally don't think hey have that much credence. But I do feel sorry for those residents - they own houses facing that junction and suddenly there are three new masts within the space of a year.
"With this new one, I feel desperately sorry for Jonathan in particular as it's literally bordering his house. In some ways it's a security concern, because there is a cabinet - someone could jump on top of the cabinet and jump into his garden."
He continued: "What I'm really annoyed about is the developer themselves. They didn't even reply to my points nor the residents' points, and two weeks later they just went and put the planning application in. I don't think they've done a pre-planning consultation at all, really."
Three said it carried out "extensive searches and surveys to evaluate all the options", before choosing the option most likely to gain planning approval from the local council. The company insists this mast has gone through "due planning process" and added that "both ward councillors and the planning department were consulted.
A Three spokesperson said: “We want to offer the community a reliable network experience and this site will be critical to making that happen. While we try to keep mast sites as unobtrusive as possible, they need to be situated where people will be using the service and, in many cases, in precise locations to ensure the widest breadth of coverage. In this case, we are doing our best to minimise the impact on the local environment by using a single mast for 4G and 5G.”
The company added that it residents’ concerns very seriously and does its best to resolve these as far as possible. A spokesperson for Cardiff Council said: "The building of infrastructure for the telecommunications industry, such as 5G masts is known as ‘permitted development’. Depending on the application, some permitted developments require ‘prior approval’ from the Planning Authority (Cardiff Council), and some do not. If ‘prior approval’ is required, the Planning Authority would then have to determine as a second stage, whether the application is going to be approved.
“If an application does require ‘prior approval’, the council is only able to assess its suitability in relation to the proposed location and the external appearance of the mast. The application cannot be refused unless it is deemed to have a ‘significant impact’ on the local area, and this impact cannot be mitigated.
“In this instance, a decision has yet to be made on whether ‘prior approval’ is required for this application, but local residents have received a letter and a site notice has been put up in the local area to notify them about the application. Given this, it would be inappropriate to comment further until a decision has been made, but it should be noted that all representations received will be taken into consideration in the determination of the application." To sign up for our CardiffOnline newsletter, click here.
