Objectors blast plans to place 'ugly' 5G phone mast in St Leonards holiday park

Freshwave Facilities Limited wants to put the 22.5-metre installation with six antennas at Combe Haven Holiday Park, in Harley Shute Road.

But residents have voiced concerns, saying the mast will overlook the countryside park.

Liz Bygrave, who campaigns against the erection of 5G masts in Hastings and St Leonards, said: “Telecoms antennas tend to be ugly obtrusive structures, especially 5G masts with their unshrouded antennas and ‘alien’ appearance. The mast proposed for Combe Haven is no exception in its ugly appearance. At 23 metres high it’s extremely tall and will have six antennas mounted on a grid at the top of the mast, making it very visible in its surroundings.

“Since it’s proposed for the highest ground of Combe Haven Holiday Park, it will also overshadow the stunning Combe Valley Nature Reserve, home to two SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest), and a remarkable amount of wildlife, including several rare species.”

Tim Crook said: “The caravan park already has a tall water flume which is very visible from the nature reserve. This mast would result in overdevelopment to the detriment of the nature reserve.”

Sally Phillips said: “The nature reserve is a favourite place for people to go for lovely walks and I can't think that the people in holiday homes would think it lovely to have a horrible mast to look at, when they have chosen a wooded area for their holiday.”

A statement from agents representing the applicants said: “The proposal submitted within this application is to provide improved communications coverage to a currently poorly serviced area from a new operational base-station at Combe Haven Holiday Park.

“The proposal is therefore required in order to allow the continued provision of 3G and 4G mobile connections to the surrounding area. The consequence of not doing so is that users of the network would find that the services they previously had access to are either limited or removed.

“The provision of poor communication services has well recognised socio-economic impacts on communities and businesses.

“The installation would also provide improved 5G services for Vodafone. This new infrastructure will provide much higher mobile download speeds and more reliable, quicker phone connections.

“The proposal has been designed in such a way as to limit any perceived harm to a minimum through appropriate siting and by proposing the smallest possible scale and quantity of equipment to meet the technical needs.”

To comment on the application, people can email the Hastings Borough Council planning department with their comments at [email protected]. The deadline for comments is Friday (September 8) and people will need to quote the reference number, which is HS/TL/23/00597 and include their name and address.

Residents’ addresses are not included when their comment is uploaded online via the council’s planning portal.