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Annex 3 shows the current SES SL earth station site at Carnane. The site extension will be almost a copy, with the identical brick building style to ensure a homogeneous appearance, also similar to the DHA and Arqiva buildings in the surrounding area. Please note, that views from the general public will be from very remote distance, because the Carnane site is exclusively zoned for radio transmitting stations and surrounded by private land respectively farm land.
Like for the current earth station installation at Carnane a new visual impact analysis was carried out for the planned site extension, taking into account the Isle of Man Landscape Character Assessment and categorized areas focused but not limited to a radius of five kilometres around Carnane to reflect the needs of citizens and tourists especially for:
Computer calculations using digital elevation data showed that neither from the urban areas of Douglas Central including the Douglas promenade, Douglas North, and Onchan nor from the valleys of Union Mills or Glen Vine, or the scenic Marine Drive, can the full upper half of the planned satellite ground antennas be seen. The curvature of the hills is used to shield effectively the view to the ground satellite antennas as the elevation profiles for the viewpoint examples from the Douglas promenade (from Villa Marina) and the Marine Drive illustrate in Annex 4 (Elevation profiles). This was confirmed by the current installation with further test drives and actual panoramic view assessments from the Carnane site (Annex 5: Panoramic Views from Site) for the extended site.
While the major settlements towards the Northeast as well as the Marine Drive are well protected, it would be unrealistic to expect, that the antennas could be hidden entirely and that there would be no visual impact anywhere at all. In fact, the pure topography of the hillslope on Carnane alone doesn't shield the antennas to be viewed for instance from Douglas West, the Spring Valley industrial area and some sections of the Old Castletown Road and the Mount Rule Road in Strang. But these are views from away.
It is also worth noting, that being able to see the current, visually dominating Arqiva (77m, AGL) and DHA towers ( 40 m AGL) does not automatically result in being able to see the proposed satellite ground antennas. In operation, the top of the satellite antennas will only be between 11.0 m and 11.7 m AGL ( 12.0 m AGL in theoretical full upright position), and will be placed lower than the DHA/Arqiva towers. So for a basic orientation on the visibility it might be concluded, that only when the DHA building itself (and not just a part of the DHA tower) is visible, the satellite ground antennas might be visible as well. Typical examples are shown in Annex 6, where a part of the DHA tower can be seen, but the proposed satellite antennas will remain invisible. Also the vegetation and buildings largely prevent views of the public to the antennas (see Annex 6), it turned out that just some road sections provide unobstructed view to the Carnane site.
Furthermore, it should be noted that while the new 11 m antennas have 2 m more in diameter than the current installed antennas, even the new 11 m antenna in the location at the highest altitude, which is the most Eastern position at the extended site, is 3 m lower in altitude than the nearby current 9 m antenna. Hence the new antennas are even better protected visually by the Carnane hill top towards Douglas Central, Douglas North with the Promenade and Onchan. Annex 7 (Free Views) shows those short sections of major roads remaining, which were identified in the impact assessment to provide more or less free view to the Carnane site. Impact assessments generally only address potential views from public roadways near residential areas which are accessible.
Because the Carnane site zoned for Radio Transmitting is surrounded by private land / farmland, the possible views (see also photos in Annex 7) for the public are:
Hence the visual appearance, if the proposed installation on Carnane is visible at all, is always quite the same. Due to the remote distance any photo montage results in adding small half circles next to the DHA building illustrating the impact of the parabolic antenna dishes.
To put the satellite dishes quantitatively into relation with the already existing antenna towers and larger building compounds of Arqiva and DHA on the Carnane site, which are widely visible, a photographic size comparison is shown in Annex 8 (Antenna Size Comparison). The significant smaller height above ground level (AGL) of the foreseen satellite antennas (ca. 12 m AGL) compared to the height of the existing Arqiva tower (77 m) and DHA tower ( 40 m AGL ) plus the lower base of the foreseen satellite antennas above sea level ( 130 to 136.5 m ASL) next to the existing Arqiva and DHA towers on the hill top ( 148 m ASL and 144.5 m ASL ) is illustrated in approximate proportion. SES SL regards it as fair to conclude that the visual impact of the satellite ground antennas will be minor compared to the existing high towers.
What the viewer from one of the few road sections impacted will experience is illustrated in Annex 7 (Free Views from Environment). Basically the parabolic dishes will appear as "bumps" if recognized at all as human made objects against the visually dominating high Arqiva and DHA towers.
Positively it should be mentioned that due the low height over ground, the planned installation won't need any aircraft warning beacons like red lights and hence the satellite ground antennas won't be illuminated at night unlike the large Arqiva tower.
To mitigate the visual impact, on top of choosing the optimal site, the following measures are envisaged:
The current health and safety processes and physical mitigation will be extended to the planned earth station extension and remain unchanged. For completeness the existing health and safety precautions in operation are repeated from the previous planning application below:
Like the well-known TV satellite dishes at home, satellite ground antennas look above the horizon towards the sky. They emit the radio waves in a narrow "pencil" beam. So by definition and in contrast to omnidirectional radiating GSM/G3/G4 antennas for cellular networks or WiMax/WiFi antennas broadly targeting the ground, satellite dish antennas focus their energy to the sky and not to the ground, neither to their side or back. This is the reason why satellite dishes can be installed even directly next to office buildings, like at SES headquarters (see Annex 9) as long as they point away from that.
The security fence foreseen around the site serves also as a safety fence insuring the public is staying well outside the sky looking beams.
Due to the coastal position of the proposed Carnane site this sky looking beam emits in direction of the sea and high above horizon, over the Upper Howe Farm (see Annex 10: Possible Emitting Beams in Azimuth \& Elevation).
SES is a fully licensed earth station operator and operates a network around the world. As such the foreseen Isle of Man earth station site extension remains fully compliant with the relevant industrial norms, health and safety standards, for radio emissions namely EN 62311, 1999/519/EC and ICNIRP Guidelines (see Annex 11: ICNIRP Conformity Statement).
Confirmation was received by the Isle of Man Airport Authorities that their systems are working with different frequencies. On-site RF measurements have been carried out by SES Engineering and the spectrum licence granted by Ofcom to SES SL for the Satellite earth station on Carnane proves that there will be no interference with other radio services.
There are no noise emission concerns. If the satellite ground antennas are moved in azimuth or elevation, then this movement for some degree variation is driven by silent electric motors and takes hours or even days.
Also the backup power diesel generators, shielded in the generator building, will just be needed for short time periods in the rare emergency case of power loss from the grid, e.g. an electricity blackout on the island. Hence the generators are nominally switched off.
For the current earth station in operation at Carnane SES SL has consulted previously with various experts and Isle of Man telecommunication service providers, especially with Sure Isle of Man Ltd and Manx Telecom Ltd about the possible sites available on the island. The best options to set up the satellite ground systems infrastructure had been considered in order to mitigate the visual impact. Also the input from Lloyd Taggart, Senior Air Traffic Engineer at the Isle of Man Airport had been taken into account.
For the site extension and further build out, subject to this planning application, SES SL has consulted with the local construction company and its architects, Stewart Clague Services Limited and NG Draughting Services Limited, both experienced in the built of the current SES earth station site.
The Department for Enterprise (DfE), namely Adrian Moore, Head of Business Executive Agency, has been very supportive to this investment project due to its positive economic impact, accepting the need for an appropriate site.
The selection process and a first layout of the antenna installation and buildings at Carnane have been presented to Stephen Moore, Policy Development Manager - Built Environment at DfE, and Chris Balmer, Senior Planning Officer at the Planning \& Building Control Directorate, Department of Environment, Food \& Agriculture (DEFA). Both agreed to the logic of the site sequential selection process and were supportive of the concept of site share at Carnane. Potential measures to mitigate the visual impact further have been
discussed in that meeting with Chris Balmer and Stephen Moore as well, e.g. landscaping by planting a line of trees/bushes and burying the buildings partly into the ground.
SES SL consulted the Manx Wildlife Trust for a "Desktop Ecological Impact Statement and Mitigation Advice" which is attached to the application and which formed an integral part of the original site selection and the previous planning application granted. The desktop study concludes that "The size and location of the development would be unlikely to seriously impact the wildlife value of the Wildlife Site." The recommendation to use "local acid stone" for the access tracks has been taken into account. The study remains a valid basis for the earth station site extension.
Recently SES SL sort advice from the Manx Wildlife Conservation Officer for the upkeep of the earth station surrounding grounds within the SES SL owned site. On advice SES SL agreed that the best way is to leave it to the local heath to grow naturally on the soil which meanwhile can be nicely observed.
Arqiva and the DHA both have towers on the Carnane site, where various telecommunication companies have antennas installed, e.g. base stations for cellular networks, WiMax, direct microwave links and TV satellite dishes.
SES SL has already been granted planning permission on the application Ref 16/00266/B, for the Erection of four satellite ground antennas with related buildings and security fencing at Carnane Radio Site Adjacent To Upper Howe Farm Old Castletown Road Douglas Isle Of Man. The site had been built with two satellite ground antennas in operation.
Extending the current SES SL earth station site at Carnane has been identified in a sequential process as the only site option meeting the minimum criteria, strictly following the 'site sharing' guideline. SES SL considers that the layout as described as optimal under all technical and environmental aspects. Extending the current site to the West, siting the development further down the hill has been carefully considered to be the best utilization of the natural shielding given by the Carnane hill top and the hill curvature towards the major residential and tourist important areas of Douglas Central, the Promenade and Onchan. The general orientation to the South and the proximity of the Carnane site to the sea, instead of transmitting over land first, makes the site ideal to keep the visual impact low and provides the necessary free view to Geo stationary satellites. The Carnane site, exclusively zoned for radio transmitting services, is surrounded by private land / farmland, which prevents close distance views from the broad public.
Following the site sharing and antenna pooling approach, the visual impact maybe mitigated further by a line of bushes/small trees to hide the antennas back to be seen from Douglas West and Spring Valley if not already shielded by the existing DHA building and the hill. In any case the existing, seven times higher Arqiva and four times DHA towers based further up the hill are visually dominating.
Therefore, the design proposed represents both the optimum planning/environmental and technical solution in this instance. As such, SES SL believes the development as proposed is in accordance with planning guidance as defined above and will benefit the economic growth of the island providing global connectivity and enhanced resilience.
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