Campaigners are losing the battle to keep mobile phone masts out of Hertsmere.

Telecommunications company One2One this week applied for planning permission to build a new 56ft mast on Green Belt land in New Road, Radlett.

The proposed mast would feature three antennae and two microwave dishes, and would be surrounded by an eight-foot steel mesh and barbed wire fence.

The application follows the installation of a 70ft mast in nearby Round Bush, and the Government's decision to allow a new 33ft mast in Borehamwood's Elstree Way.

Michael Rachlin, a senior planning officer at Hertsmere Borough Council, said it was up to One2One to demonstrate that there was nowhere else in southern Radlett where it could build the new mast.

He said the usual rules about building on Green Belt land still applied to mobile phone masts, and One2One would have to show that there were exceptional circumstances that justified the development.

"The mast they want to build would be a mono-pole. It is not one of the huge lattice poles with what looks like scaffolding around it, it would look more like a floodlight at a football ground."

He said the proposed mast would be partially hidden by trees, and that the company had supplied evidence to show it was well within the Government's safety limits for radioactive emissions.

Graham Taylor from the Radlett Society said there had already been several planning applications for mobile phone masts in Radlett, and he was concerned they could damage the village's appearance.

"We are opposed to them in the Green Belt, we feel the openness of the Green Belt is compromised by these phone masts," he said, adding: "The society has seen at least two applications for new masts in the last three months."

In May BT Cellnet was granted planning permission to build a 70ft mobile phone mast on Green Belt land at High Cross Lane, in Round Bush, to replace an earlier mobile phone mast on the same site.

This week BT Cellnet won the right to build a 33ft mast at the junction of Studio Way and Elstree Way in Borehamwood.

The company applied for permission to build the mast in January, but Hertsmere Borough Council objected to the scheme, and the company was forced to lodge a planning appeal.

At the appeal the Government's Planning Inspectorate ruled in BT Cellnet's favour. It said the company had proved it needed to build the mast, to rectify poor coverage in the area, and the design of the mast would not look out of place in Elstree Way.

He said it would be only slightly taller than a lighting column, and would not damage the views in an area dominated by large office blocks.

October 31, 2001 15:51