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NORTH EAST MOUNTAIN TRUST - Phone Masts
A Quality Future for Mountaineers and Hill-Walkers
Shared Rural Network
Chris Bryant, the Minister at Westminster responsible, has acted on the concerns raised and the number of 'total not spot' masts has now been radically pruned. The original plan included over 300 telecoms masts (subsequently reduced to 258), mostly in remote and unspoilt hill country, to cover these so called 'total not spots'; this has been reduced to 44. There is no doubt that this is a major victory for environmental campaigning; it is on a par with past successes NEMT was party to, such as the preservation of the Longhaven sea cliffs from a super quarry and the rejection of the plan to extend the Cairngorm ski area into Lurchers Gully. The masts' campaign was co-ordinated by the John Muir Trust and Mountaineering Scotland but NEMT has played a central role by writing to MPs, objecting to 84 individual planning applications, circulating information and supporting, and occasionally, chivvying others.
The result is much better that we had dared to hope at the beginning of the summer when we thought that there might be a very limited pruning of the number of sites. It is particularly heartening that the Grampians have emerged pretty well intact with plans for masts adjacent to Ryvoan bothy, close to Luibeg bridge and in Glen Tilt now abandoned. Further afield, many egregious proposals, such as two masts close together in upper Glen Nevis, have been withdrawn. However, the northern grouping of 'likely to go ahead' masts includes clusters north east of Kinlochewe, around Loch Fannich and on the Glencalvie estate east of Alladale: these will serve little purpose and will have detrimental landscape effects. It is unclear why they have remained in the plan, unless it is simply to meet a land coverage percentage target. At the time of writing, NEMT is awaiting information about the exact location of masts in the southern Highlands. In addition, it is likely that masts which are planned for 'partial not spots', areas where there is some mobile coverage but not 4G, will go ahead and this includes such horrors as one adjacent to the path up Creag Dhubh (Speyside).
We thank members who wrote to your MP, MSP and local councillor to object to these developments.
Further information at srn.org.uk and parkswatchscotland.co.uk.