Council's apology to furious residents as 15 metre phone mast erected in Mansfield street without warning

Simone Swift has been at her property for 27 years and says she is appalled at the lack of communication regarding the erection of a 15 metre telecommunications mast on a grassed area just metres from her Marriott Avenue home.

Simone and other nearby residents were shocked when workers began installing the mast on Monday morning without any prior notification to residents.

Mansfield District Council have confirmed that they will be issuing an apology to residents, after they admitted that an error had been made during the notification stages.

Simone explains: “We were all just so shocked when it was put up, as we assumed that we would have been notified before work started, but we haven’t had any letters.

"We had seen an application for a mast on Sutton Road, which would have been better as it isn’t smack bang in front of anyone’s house.

"It’s appalling, I used to look out onto a nice bit of grass, but now I have the mast right in the middle of my view.

"I just hope it won’t affect property prices now – it looks out of place.”

Martyn Saxton, head of planning and regeneration, said: “A site notice was displayed on the telegraph pole close to the junction between Botany Avenue and Marriott Avenue, in the corner of the application site in October.

The regulations (as set out in the General Permitted Development Order) require that we either notify neighbours in writing or erect a site notice and therefore we are content that the council has followed the correct procedure in terms of how this application was advertised.

"However, we made an error in terms of the properties that we did notify as these were not those closest to the application site.

“There was an expectation that the properties adjacent to the site would have received a letter, as that was our intention and the process that we normally follow, despite the more limited scope of the procedural requirements.

"We will be writing to those properties to apologise for this error and to explain the background to this case.”