Haringey Council mistakenly approves planning application for “detrimental” phone mast

Haringey Council has admitted that a 5G mast on Hornsey Cricket Club field, for which planning permission was refused, has been accidentally given the go ahead through council incompetence.
 
The council has 56 days to respond to permitted development applications; which phone masts fall under. However, due to a manual error in the way Haringey had configured its planning IT system, the council notified the applicant of the refusal a day late, on day 57. National legislation says that if no notification is given by day 56, the application is deemed to have been automatically approved. In addition to the 5G mast in Crouch End, a second mast in Tottenham was affected by the same error.
 
Given the application has now been deemed to have approval, the council has admitted it has no powers to enforce the decision they wanted to make. The Cricket Club, who own the land, have no option but to grant access to the telecoms company or face an expensive civil battle in the courts to get the application blocked. Under national legislation, the Electronic Communications Code, telecoms companies have the right to install masts on land despite the opposition of the landowner.
 
There had been strong local opposition to the proposal, including from the Cricket Club itself, due to the impact on the Crouch End Conservation Area and the local area of Metropolitan Open Land.
 
Cllr Luke Cawley-Harrison (LD-Crouch End)
“This is a shocking error from Haringey Council, and underlines why the “last minute” culture, which affects planning enquiries, complaint responses, housing issues and more, is utterly unacceptable. Residents, and in particular Hornsey Cricket Club, are now left to deal with the consequences of the council’s negligence - this simply is not good enough.”

Notes:

Officers decision conclusion (issued a day late):
 
Refusal Reasons:
The proposed development, by reason of its siting, appearance, size, scale and prominent location, would be visually intrusive, resulting in an incongruous and obtrusive form of development, adding to clutter within this area of Metropolitan Open Area and would appear out of keeping with the character of the surrounding street scene and would have a detrimental impact on local visual amenity and on the character and appearance of the wider area. The proposal would therefore be contrary to adopted Policies DM1 and DM3 of the Development Management, Development Plan Document (2017), and Policy SP11 of the Haringey Local Plan (2017) and as such Policy SI 6 of the adopted London Plan 2021 and as such prior approval is required and refused.
 
Planning Application: HGY/2023/0825
Decision Notice: https://publicregister.haringey.gov.uk/pr/sfc/servlet.shepherd/version/download/0688d00000JAs47AAD