Planning board overturns approval for 24-metre Athlone mast
An Bord Pleanála has overturned a decision by Westmeath County Council to grant planning approval for a 24-metre telecommunications structure at the Willow Park Football Club grounds in Athlone.
In March of last year, the council granted permission to Vantage Towers Limited for the erection of a 24m high lattice tower, together with antennas, dishes, associated telecommunications equipment and a proposed access track.
The telecommunications infrastructure was due to be enclosed in security fencing and situated next to the rear of an existing floodlit astroturf pitch, and adjacent to the Dublin-Galway railway line, at the Willow Park FC grounds.
In its application, Vantage Towers described itself as "one of Europe's leading tower companies," stating that it had been "created by the Vodafone Group" in 2020. A letter of support from Vodafone Ireland was submitted with the planning bid.
The council's decision to award planning permission was appealed to An Bord Pleanála last year by the secretary of the Willow Park Residents Association, and the appeal included eight letters from local residents, with 23 signatories.
A report in September by Bébhinn O’Shea, senior planning inspector with An Bord Pleanála, found that the developer of the 24-metre mast had not submitted "adequate justification" for the selection of the proposed site.
Ms O'Shea said there was also an absence of detail about "specific alterative locations considered" for the development.
Vantage Towers was subsequently directed by An Bord Pleanála to submit full details of "investigations carried out, in advance of submission of the subject application, of potential alternative sites in industrial estates or on industrially zoned lands" in the vicinity.
The company was also instructed to "fully address the feasibility" of such alternative locations.
However a follow-up inspector's report by Ms O'Shea in February of this year concluded that the response from Vantage Towers, regarding its assessment of possible alternative sites, was not adequate.
The Bord Pleanála inspector concluded that planning permission should be turned down because the applicant "has not submitted adequate justification for the proposed site," and had not provided "full details of investigations of alternative sites and a robust assessment of the feasibility of same".
In a decision which was signed off in late February, the planning board agreed with its inspector's view.
It refused permission for the mast due to the "inadequate" justification provided by the developer for its choice of the Willow Park FC site location.