Phone mast will spoil our view

The price for Lanark getting better mobile phone reception will be the town's skyline changing forever and some residents losing among the finest views to be had for miles around.
Lanarks GallowhillLanarks Gallowhill
Lanarks Gallowhill

That became clear following a very public complaint by one of those residents, objecting to plans by Paisley firm WFS Telecoms to erect a 65ft-tall communications mast on top of Lanark’s highest point, Gallowhill.

That resident, Philip Cave, who lives just yards from where the mast would be erected next to Lanark’s scout headquarters, made his discontent clear to the latest meeting of Lanark Community Council, which has declined to object to the development.

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He told council members: “When we came to Lanark, part of the reason we decided to settle was the views from our house. Now that mast and associated antennae, dishes and service huts are to be built right in the way of these views and will spoil them.”

Council chairman Frank Gunning said he very much doubted that the planning authority, South Lanarkshire Council, would accept a ruined view as a legitimate grounds for objection to the development.

“That is not a planning consideration, and so I don’t see the council accepting it as grounds for knocking it back,” he commented.

One of the authority’s members attending the meeting, Clydesdale North councillor Catherine McClymont, said that she had been in discussions with its planning department, asking officers to approach WFS to ask if the mast could be reduced in size “to about the height of a flagpole” to make it less obstrusive.