Mobile Telecommunications Mast
Despite the best efforts of the Parish Council, there will, regrettably, be no Mobile Mast erected in the Parish for at least a year.
This decision has been taken by Arquiva, the company who have the contract from the government body funding the scheme to cut down the number of “not spots†in the country (of which we are one, as reinforced by the survey we undertook). This government body is the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and they have endorsed this decision.
The reason they have given for the decision is that funding for this scheme runs out in March 2016 and if they cannot restart the process until October, this would give them insufficient time to complete before the funding runs out. The significance of October is that this is when the Craystons complete their purchase of Hunts Hall, near to which is the currently preferred site. We have pointed out that the Notts, who are selling the property, are willing to co-operate in the process and sign any necessary documents, but to no avail.
Other factors leading to this decision are the history of problems and objections which have been encountered to date; regrettably many of the recent objections contained inaccuracies. Additional factors were the inefficiency of Arquiva’s agents Harlequin, and the fact that Arquiva have already spent considerable sums of grant money surveying and assessing three sites in Pebmarsh.
It is possible that funding for this will be renewed for a further year (until March 2017) but we will not know this until later in the year. If this happens then we should be in the frame again.