Views to proposed telecommunications base station and tower.
Plans have been submitted to Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council for a new telecommunications base station in Ballycastle.
The station would consist of a new 25m lattice tower with antennas and satellite dishes.
It is part of the Government-backed Shared Rural Network (SRN) scheme, a collaboration between mobile network operators Telefonica, Vodafone and Three and the Government to improve 4G coverage for people living, working and travelling in poorly served rural areas.
The network will ensure geographic coverage from at least one operator to 95% of the UK by 2025.
The proposed location for the station is off the Glenmakeeran Road, in Ballypatrick Forest in Ballycastle.
Site location map.
Planning documents submitted by applicant Cornerstone Telecommunications explain that the height of the mast “will improve service whilst limiting the environmental impact through reduced proliferation and a minimised number of sites”.
The documents continue: “It is recognised that the very nature of installing new telecommunications infrastructure within such a rural setting requires a well-measured balance between the need to extend practical coverage with the risk of increasing visual intrusion.
“However, we believe that any potential visual intrusion is outweighed by the benefits that the proposed development delivers and opportunity for a SRN.”
Site elevation.
According to the documents, the design has been influenced by “the significant wish to reduce the environmental impact of network development upon the area and wider area” while “still delivering the necessary and needed social and economic benefits” of enhanced connectivity.
This includes educational benefits, access to vital services, improved communications with the associated commercial benefits for local businesses, e-commerce and working from home options and access to social media and gaming for leisure time activities.
Cornerstone is the UK’s leading mobile infrastructure services company. It manages and owns over 20,000 sites and is committed to enabling best in class mobile connectivity for over half of all the country’s mobile customers.