Phone mast plan dropped

THE new owners of Blackboys Nursery will not allow a mobile phone mast to be erected on the site, it was revealed this week.

Brian Fidler and his partner Fiona Knill took over the nursery from Phillip Flagg a month ago. This week they revealed that they have rejected proposals from phone operator Orange to erect a mast on nursery grounds.

The news received a welcome from villagers, who earlier this year successfully opposed a previous planning application from Orange for a mast to be built on the site.

Mr Fidler, 37, said: 'We had several reasons for not allowing a mast in the grounds. Firstly, we're not convinced about the health aspects of them. Secondly, it was going to take up ground and would have been visually obtrusive for us and everybody else. And thirdly, we knew that there was some local concern. We didn't want to move into an area and upset people.'

Brian said that because of the potential value of the property as a site for a mobile phone mast, the new owners had to pay a 'substantial' premium on the purchase price. 'It's cost us money not to have a mast,' he said.

The couple have moved to Sussex from Berkshire. They have closed the nursery until March in order to carry out expansion.

Parish clerk Ann Newton offered a cautious welcome to the mast news: 'The villagers will be very pleased but what Orange will do I don't know. They could try and find another site. There must be a certain radius that they need to operate from.

'But this is very welcome. I'd say 99 per cent of villagers were against it. The parish council's stance was that it wasn't against a mobile phone mast per se but it was against one at this site.'

An Orange spokesman said: 'We are now reviewing our options to find a suitable solution to improve the level of network coverage and capacity for our customers in the area.'