Smart meter rollout threatens countryside with ‘oppressive' 40ft masts
A nationwide rollout of smart meters threatens to clutter the countryside with 40-foot poles.
Water companies are preparing to install dedicated wireless networks to transmit the readings of a planned 10m devices that will collect live data on household and business water usage.
Under the proposals, the so-called 'telemetry' poles will appear in already-crowded streets to handle the data, with companies exploiting planning rules brought in by the last government that effectively allow poles to be put up with little or no consultation or warnings for residents.
Regions already hit by the new devices include the historic town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in Northumberland, where 20 planning applications, each for multiple poles, have been lodged to support Northumbrian Water's smart meter programme.
The plans have generated a wave of objections, with locals complaining of 'an unsightly clutter of overbearing poles' that it is claimed will be 'obstructing natural light and creating an oppressive outlook'.
Similar schemes are also generating fury further south. Essex and Suffolk Water intends to put up an initial 157 poles in Great Yarmouth alone, with plans for hundreds more around the region.
Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council's cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure, told a council meeting: 'I'm seriously concerned because this isn't just Great Yarmouth going to get hit, but all the major towns, all the villages are going to get these telegraph poles put up.'
Anglian Water, which provides water for the rest of Norfolk, has also been installing pillars to monitor smart meter usage. The plan has infuriated Norfolk County Council, which argued that existing networks should have been used rather than putting up scores of new poles.
Ptolemy Dean, official Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey, and author of Streetscapes, on the evolution of street architecture, said the water metering poles would be an aesthetic disaster for Britain's towns and villages.
He said: 'This is a nasty, cheap short-term fix that will damage public spaces and devalue the homes of people living nearby.'
The main contractor putting up the poles is Hull-based Connexin, which is already working for multiple water companies.
A spokesman said thousands more poles were needed around the UK. 'Water companies need data and this is the best way to collect it,' he said.
Connexin is exploiting 'permitted development' planning rules brought in by the last government that effectively allow the company to erect poles wherever it wants with little or no consultation or warnings for residents.
Under UK planning law telecoms poles which are less than 15 metres high are included under permitted development so there is no need for planning permission.
Connexin's spokesman said: 'We would like to install the wireless routers on existing infrastructure but there is often nothing suitable. It is frustrating for the owners of nearby properties but we are erecting them under permitted development rules which allow us to do that.'
Ofwat, the water regulator, which is strongly in favour of smart meters, distanced itself from the row.
A spokesman said: 'Water companies are responsible for installing their own equipment and technology and following their local authorities' rules and regulations.
'It is not for Ofwat the economic water regulator to determine how and where poles are installed locally.'
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