Radio tower — act of ‘vandalism’

A PLAN to put up a 120ft radio tower close to the historic church at Brentor — regarded as one of Devon's jewels — would be an act of appalling vandalism says an environment group.

West Devon Group of the Council for the Protection of Rural England has called for a public outcry over Surf Telecoms' application to put up the radio tower and build a large workshop at Bowden Down.

'In any surrounding this would visually intrusive,' said member Hugh Davies of Tavistock. 'But as the intended site is only a mile north west of the Brentor Church — off the north Brentor to Chillaton road — it would be on the 230 metre contour line. A public outcry is surely needed?

'It would certainly mean that the well-known and loved image of St Michael's Church on its cliff of volcanic stone, would be appallingly damaged from many viewpoints.'

Mr Davies warned that if the application was allowed, it would have national repercussions as well as local ones.

'Only a few weeks ago, a much-acclaimed new book by Simon Jenkins — England's Thousand Best Churches — listed St Michael's as one of Devon's jewels. Pevsner calls it an exciting sight for miles around.'

The Rector of St Michael's de Rupe, Ian Sykes, said: 'I can see it might well be intrusive but how intrusive is difficult to gauge until I see the plans.'

Communications site manager of Surf Telecoms, Barrie Stephens, said the tower would replace the one at Lamerton which was now unsafe and could not be climbed.

'As we are spending a great deal of money and will market the new tower to cellphone users, we thought we would chose a site which could serve the Chillaton area and valleys in Dartmoor where reception quality is poor,' said Mr Stephens. 'Obviously, higher ground means better cover for the whole area.

'With the new generation of mobile phones, there will need to be more base stations nearer together and this way we can put all the eggs in one basket so to speak.'

However, Mr Stephens said his company 'did not want to go to war' over the application.

'We are happy to work along with the planners and would be prepared to screen the station with trees or do whatever is needed to landscape the site,' he added.

The application is due to go before the planning committee next month and already a number of letters of objection have been received by the borough council said a spokesman.