Steve McCabe MP (Birmingham Selly Oak) and local councillors for Bournville & Cotteridge ward are calling for local residents to boycott Vodafone and O2 telecommunications companies because of their plans to build a phone mast in the garden village of Bournville.
There is huge local opposition to the massive 17.5 meter phone mast which is to be located in a prominent location on the corner of Heath road and Hawthorne road in Bournville. Local residents have come together to form BRAM – Bournville Residents Against the Mast – and are protesting this week to stop the phone mast.
Local councillor Liz Clements has tried to work with Vodafone and O2 to find an alternative location for the mast but this has not been successful. The phone companies have decided to install the mast at this location regardless of the huge opposition.
Steve McCabe MP wrote to the Chief Executives for both Vodafone and O2 urging them to listen to local residents and abandon their plans to build this phone mast but he has still not received a reply.
Steve McCabe MP and Cllr Liz Clements have been working with local residents to oppose a second application to build a large phone mast on the corner of Heath Road and Hawthorne Road, Bournville, since the start of the year. The application was initially refused by the Planning Committee in March but in a case of shocking incompetence the applicants were later given approval by default. It transpired the Planning Department failed to properly register the application meaning their missed their own deadline for making a decision.
At the time Steve McCabe MP called for an inquiry into the practices and management of the council after a series of failings, including the fiasco of giving planning permission to lidl to build a store in Stirchley and then rescinding the planning permission as they hadn’t observed the council’s own planning policy. The Council later denied there were any problems within the Planning Department and said these were isolated incidents.
Steve McCabe MP said:
“Vodafone and O2 are riding roughshod over my constituents who do not want a huge 17.5 meter phone mast sticking out on the corner of Heath Road and Hawthorne Road. We need to send these phone companies a message that they can’t just obtain planning permission on a technicality and build a mast that no one wants. Let’s boycott Vodafone and O2 and show them they are not welcome.”
Cllr Liz Clements said:
“Myself and local residents will not just lie down and let Vodafone and O2 build their phone mast in our local area. They have shown absolutely no regard to the feelings of local residents or the fact the site is in a conservation area. John Cadbury will be turning in his grave.”
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