Installation of 4 telegraph poles to provide fibre optic connectivity to 20-32 Laurys Avenue

Why Was This Refused?

• ✓Four 9-metre wooden poles with overhead cabling in a street with no existing above-ground infrastructure
• ✓Street of traditional bungalows with open, unfenced frontages — absence of poles is a designed feature of the estate
• ✓Unacceptable visual harm to the character and appearance of the street scene
• ✓Applicant failed to justify why underground fibre delivery was not pursued
• ✓Ramsey Town Commissioners objected; multiple similar Ramsey applications previously refused
• ✓character
• ✓scale
• ✓amenity
• ✓Residential amenity

The proposal sought to erect four wooden telegraph poles, each projecting 7–7.5 metres above ground and 250–300mm in diameter, with associated overhead network cables criss-crossing to individual properties along Laurys Avenue. The decisive planning concern was visual harm. The height, size, and scale of the poles and their associated cabling would introduce visually intrusive infrastructure into a sensitive residential setting, adversely affecting the character and appearance of the street scene to an unacceptable degree. The application also failed to demonstrate a strategic national need for the above-ground approach or to adequately justify why underground cabling — acknowledged as a viable alternative — had not been pursued. Ramsey Town Commissioners also formally objected on the same grounds.

The poles and overhead cabling would cause unacceptable visual harm to a residential street whose open, uncluttered character depends on the absence of such infrastructure, contrary to General Policy 2 (b, c, g). The application also failed to justify why underground fibre delivery was not used instead, contrary to Infrastructure Policy 3. These harms outweighed the benefit of improved broadband connectivity.

Policies Assessed (4)

Planning History (10)

Documents (18)