Vodafone has applied for planning permission for a large 15 metre high mast and cabinets on Twyford Street adjacent to the Cally Pool.  You can see the application and respond online and/or write to the case officer Paul Conboy via planning@islington.gov.uk The application number P101397 is open for comment until 4 August.  The mast is likely to serve Barnsbury, the Bemerton, Delhi-Outram area and probably the Guardian/canal area.  In appearance, the mast and its power cabinets would resemble the ugly pavement-blocking T-Mobile mast on the York Way pavement near the (former) Cross Kings pub (cabinets in picture).

You can't have mobile phones without antenna on masts to send a signal to and from them.  As the broader Kings Cross area has become more popular and more people come and go so more mobile antenna are needed.  The issue for me is how the neighbourhood plans to accomodate these huge, power hungry, ugly installations.  We can either shoehorn them in willy-nilly one network at a time as with this application or we can have a plan to locate them in the right place agreed between the Council, the phone operators and the neighbourhood.  In this case it coudl well make more sense for new antennae to join the existing large installation on the roof of Orkney House.

The onus is on the council officers to initiate a discussion with the phone operators, who will normally respond in a joined up approach. Last time this came up Councillor Convery wrote to operators (see comments here) and urged council officers to get engaged – will be interesting to know if officers did anything and whether this latest application is as a result of that.

Comments welcome, but not please on the vexed issue of health and mobile masts – there are plenty of other places on the internet you can discuss that.