AT THE last meeting of North Cornwall District Council's Planning Committee on Tuesday, officers approved an application for the installation of an antenna on the existing transmitting station in Bossiney.

The application — submitted by Arqiva Limited — sought permission to add additional equipment at a height of 17.5 metres to a 24 metre high lattice telecommunications tower on the outskirts of Bossiney. It also included ancillary equipment at base level to service the installation.

The tower was originally built and continues to be used as a TV transmitter but from the late 1990s has also been developed into a mobile phone base station for three mobile phone operators as well as the Emergency Services Network used by the police force. The applicant said the additional equipment is required to provide a receiver/transmitter of digital signals needed for the digital switch over.

Some 505 proforma letters of objection and two additional objection letters were sent to the council, raising a number of concerns about the proposal. However, the planning committee voted in favour of approving the application. It was the last meeting of the committee before the implementation of the new unitary authority, Cornwall Council on April 1.