THE latest proposed site for a mobile telephone mast in Beacon Hill has been given the thumbs down by Haslemere Town Council. In its new plans, T-Mobile wants to erect a five- metre high flagpole-type mast, complete with three antennas, on the rooftop of shops in Beacon Hill Road, to provide coverage to the area. Town councillors discussed a letter from T-Mobile on the proposed base station at its planning and highways meeting last week, as part of its pre application consultation with Waverley Borough Council. But Peter Isherwood, the town councillor for the Hindhead area, believes that the new site proposals are no better than the last proposed site, and no further away from the United Reformed Church and a nursery school which operates at the site and the nearby primary school. After the meeting, Mr Isherwood said that following the regeneration of the village and the many weekends spent with volunteers cleaning up the area and making it more attractive: "The one thing we don't want to do is have an ugly mast. "It is inappropriate and would have an adverse effect on the amenity of the Beacon Hill, making it a less desirable place to live and to do business in." And he believed it would be far more realistic for the mobile phone company to mast share or erect it in the nearby playing field. "They have now moved it 50 yards down the road and put it on another building, on one of the shops in Beacon Hill Road and it is even closer to the school with its 200 pupils. "I would rather we did without it," said Mr Isherwood. T-Mobile in its consultation letter to Waverley said that because of the number of homes in the area, its options for the mast are limited. So far it has already ruled out St Anselm's RC Church, Beacon Hill United Reformed Church, St Alban's Church and The Woodcock public house because their rooftops were not suitable. Beacon Hill Garage was also discounted because the mast would be too prominent. "No other existing or suitable telecommunication mass, building or tall structures were noted in the surrounding area," the letter said.
