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A two-year-long campaign by residents and councillors in the Rochdale town of Heywood has succeeded in getting broadband provider IX Wireless (UK ISP 6Gi / Opus Broadband) to remove their 15-metre tall metal mast / pole on Snowden Street. The council said the structure had an “unsightly appearance” and that there had been “little or no consultation with local communities” before its deployment.
The company, which holds an aspiration to cover 250,000 premises across North West England with their new network (here), has been building a hybrid fibre and wireless broadband network across several towns in the region, such as Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Nelson, Accrington, Thornton-Cleveleys, Fleetwood, Blackpool, Tameside and Oldham etc.
However, the “up to” 15-metre-high metal poles (masts) that they build don’t always go down well with nearby residents, with people often highlighting their negative visual appearance. On the flip side, unlike the smaller 9m tall wood telecoms poles that are used for fixed lines, being a wireless service means they only need to deploy a smaller number of these in order to cover a wide area.
The problem is that such structures don’t always have to go through the usual planning process, which means they can pop up quite quickly and often without locals getting much of a say. But they are still subject to some conditions and restrictions when installing telecommunications apparatus. One of which includes the need to, so far as reasonably practicable, minimise the impact on the visual amenity of nearby properties.
The council’s original enforcement notice against the mast highlighted both its “unsightly appearance” and that there had been “little or no consultation with local communities” before its deployment. IX Wireless initially attempted to appeal the decision with the Planning Inspectorate, but have since withdrawn it and the mast has now been removed.
Neil Emmott, Leader of the Council, said (Manchester Evening News):
“We’re delighted that this unsightly mast in Heywood has been removed. We’re very aware of the impact these masts have had on our communities and share our residents’ obvious concerns about their unsightly appearance.
That’s why we have invested considerable time and resources into tackling this issue, including contacting Ofcom and issuing a planning enforcement notice. We’re aware that there are other masts in the borough which are also causing issues for residents and we are also seeking their removal.
The removal of the mast in Heywood is a step in the right direction and we are engaged in ongoing discussions with IX wireless to build on this and get the right result for affected residents in all parts of the borough.
We are acutely aware of how essential good internet access is and that’s why we introduced our award-winning mesh network to tackle digital exclusion. We’ve already connected more than 1,500 people to this free civic Wifi and it is helping to transform lives. That’s why we know that excellent internet access can be achieved without the need for unsightly masts of the kind which IX wireless have brought into our borough.”
As indicated in Neil Emmott’s comment above, Ofcom does have an ongoing investigation into this case (here). But that only started in May 2025 and IX Wireless’ decision perhaps reflects the pressures from both that and the risk of wider negative publicity if they’d instead opted to continue their appeal. Such investigations tend to take a long time to reach a conclusion, although the regulator’s powers in this area remain quite limited (here).
In addition, it’s worth noting that the ISPA and INCA recently published new ‘Best Practice Guidance’ for gigabit broadband operators that are building new poles as part of their UK network expansions. The guidance aims to support the Government’s goal of “ending the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here), not least by requiring providers to engage more closely with communities before they build (details here).
Suffice to say that today’s political and regulatory climate is much less tolerant of new poles and masts than it once was. But it remains to be seen whether the local authority in this case will have success in lodging similar pressure against some of IXW’s other structures in different areas. At the same time we shouldn’t forget that this could also have a negative impact on customers who have already connected to the new broadband service.
However, the above outcome doesn’t currently set a wider precedent for other network operators, not least because IXW’s large 15m metal poles/masts are visually quite different, as well as being much larger, than your typical c.9m high wood telegraph / telecoms poles (i.e. any future ruling by Ofcom may thus also not be directly translatable to the latter).