As local residents, Orange have not made
any case to us to demonstrate
that alternative sites would not be viable.
- Wallasey is remarkable in that for a densely populated area, there is
so much unpopulated open space surrounding it. These include the Liverpool
and Wirral docklands and Bidston Moss. Of course, being a peninsula there
are also plenty of coastal and offshore sites available and, further
afield, the North Wales coast and mountains.
- Mobile phone masts have a range of some 20 miles giving a wide range
of alternative sites. They could be placed gas rigs in Liverpool Bay, on
the wind farm that will shortly be built there, on the Crosby coastline or
even as far away as the North Wales coast, yet still provide clear
line of sight to Wallasey.
More imaginatively, a dedicated tower could be built in the Liverpool
docklands area (Seaforth Docks), which lies less than 2 miles from the
Water Tower, but well away from schools and housing. In such an
industrialised area, there would be little objection on planning grounds.
Although the initial expense would be high, they would avoid the problem
of paying rent and could also share the tower with at least five other
mobile phone companies in the area.
- Furthermore Orange already have ``high quality'' coverage in
Wallasey, and indeed throughout all of Merseyside, so this application
is not needed for them to meet their licensing requirements.6
