Telecommunications company Arqiva have won their appeal to allow them to site a Tetra mast just yards away from a local holiday home for disabled children. The future of the Harriet Davis Trust's 'Wheelabout' home at The Ridgeway in Penally has been dealt a blow with the decision by National Assembly appointed town and country planning inspector, Gwynedd Thomas, to allow the appeal in favour of Arqiva. The decision came this week in a report released by the inspector after a recent three-day hearing at the De Valence in Tenby. "All the objections against the erection of a Tetra mast on The Ridgeway, just 75 yards from The Wheelabout home have been rejected by the planning inspector in giving permission for it to be installed," said owners Kit and John Davis after hearing the decision (see Letters). "So we now face the real possibility that families with disabled children, particularly those subject to epileptic fits, will choose not to use the house, depriving them of the opportunity of having a holiday together and making it uneconomic for the Trust to keep the house open," they added. Penally resident Ann Dassen, who has been leading a campaign to fight against the mast application, said they were "devastated" for the Trust. She criticised the planning inspector's report, which she believed overlooked a number of relevant issues and evidence. "All the valid planning arguments are ignored or dismissed in a sentence! Disability rights, children's act, previous planning refusals, previous appeal refusals, four sets of radiation up there already, perceived health fears for the most vulnerable little souls in Britain," said Mrs. Dassen. Pembrokeshire County Council could now be looking at a substantial bill to pay out in costs to Arqiva. The appeal followed the non-determination of the application by members of the authority's planning and rights of way committee at a meeting last year, with members later stating that they would have given the proposal the go-ahead. "It is also shameful that the county council have been told to pay Airwave's costs; yes, we have issues with some of their actions, but they don't deserve this," continued Mrs. Dassen. "This Government's pampering to the telecommunications giants, giving them planning 'carte blanche' to bully themselves into permission wherever they choose has caused uproar between community groups and local planning authorities throughout Britain, with both picking up the inflated financial tabs of the fat-cat lawyers. It is morally wrong and should be made illegal," she remarked. Mrs. Dassen did, however, point to a glimmer of hope for the Harriet Davis Trust's fight against the application. "The local landowners, the Robert Lock Trust, have threatened to take them all the way to the high court over a tiny clause in their expired lease," she added.
