COUNCILLORS have run up a red flag over plans for a mobile phone mast on Banbridge's Old Newry Road.
Planners have approved the Vodafone UK proposal for a 12m high streetworks pole, three tri-sector shrouded antennae (1.9m high), dish and equipment cabinet on a grass verge some 100m north east of No.2 Thornwood.
But councillors have asked for the m
atter to be deferred for a month, insisting a better location should be sought.
The request came first from Councillor Junior McCrum at a recent meeting of the council's Public Services Liaison Committee.
The DUP councillor said one of two nearby fields had been zoned for a new Abercorn Primary School.
He didn't think it a good idea, he said, to have a mobile phone mast located so close to a school site.
Councillor David Herron agreed. Vodafone had told the council there were only two such masts in Banbridge town, said Mr. Herron, and that being the case he thought it best they look for somewhere else to install the latest.
People did not want such masts sited on their doorsteps, he said.
"They tell us they do us no harm, but who wants them beside them?" he asked.
Committee chairman, Councillor Patrick McAleenan said he knew there was a need for mobile phone facilities, but surely, he said, they could find a better location.
