Plans to build a 20-metre-high mobile phone mast in Dunmow are expected to be thrown out by Uttlesford district councillors.

Members of the council's development control sub-committee, meeting on Monday, will be urged by officers to refuse the application by the NTL Group Limited.

The company wants to build the mast, with equipment cabins, security fencing, dishes and nine antennae, on land at Eastern Electricity's sub-station in Station Road.

The site, which lies next to a designated area of special landscape value, is just yards away from homes in Station Road, Sunbank, The Avenue and Oakroyd Avenue.

The mast would replace the existing 18-metre high mast which is visible from various points along Chelmsford Road and the A120. The applicant's agents, FPD Savills, say the mast is designed to provide in-car mobile phone coverage.

"Generally the coverage in this area is patchy,'' their report reads. " This site is designed to remedy this situation and minimise the number of new mast structures in the vicinity."

The council has already received objections to the plan from Dunmow Town Council and local residents. Objectors fear that the "Christmas-tree" effect of extra dishes and antennae would dwarf neighbouring properties.

An officers' report states: "It is appreciated that there are other telecommunications masts within the Great Dunmow area and that a refusal of permission may necessitate another site.

"However, the visual impact of the proposal would be to the detriment of the townscape's character, public views of the area of special landscape value to the east and the general visual amenity of the southern and south eastern approaches to the town."

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