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Highland Council transport team object to BT’s plans for Street Hub wi-fi monoliths in Inverness city centre





An artist's impression of the proposed 'Street Hub' in Church Street. Picture: BT.
An artist's impression of the proposed 'Street Hub' in Church Street. Picture: BT.

Plans to replace several city centre phone boxes with public wi-fi hubs face another hurdle after falling foul of road safety concerns.

Highland Council’s conservation officers had already dealt the proposals a blow, with strongly worded objections to BT's plans for each of the new hubs - which would stand roughly 10ft tall and feature large display screens and wi-fi connectivity.

The three hubs are intended to serve as replacements for six existing phone boxes in Church Street, High Street and Inglis Street - with one located at each location.

But their positions within the city centre conservation area horrified conservation officers, who accused BT of "clearly failing" to consider their impact on historic buildings nearby and branding them "entirely inappropriate".

And now they face another major stumbling block after the council’s transport officers raised their own objections over road safety, arguing that the large, visually distracting monoliths pose potential dangers to pedestrians and motorists.

They have also argued that they will create additional obstacles in the footpath for people with disabilities to negotiate around - such as those with mobility issues or sight loss.

Objecting to the Church Street proposals, they said: “Although the proposed advertisement panel may offer some public benefit, the Transport Planning Team objects to its placement within this footway.

“The Transport Planning Team is concerned that the proposal might be contrary to the Inverness City Centre Development Brief and its placemaking principles for all new development in the city centre: ‘Design should have regard for the access needs of disabled people by, for example, prioritising avoidance of street clutter, including road signs, bollards, railings and finger signs’.

“The panel is of a significant size (1.2m x 0.4m x 3.0m) and located in the vicinity of an uncontrolled pedestrian crossing. It will reduce the available space for pedestrians and could fail to accommodate passing wheelchairs and mobility vehicles.

”It will also reduce the visibility at the pedestrian crossing, and potentially lead to conflict between various users.”

Objections to the Inglis Street and High Street proposals were similarly worded, although officers also raised further concerns to those sites because maintenance of the hubs will lead to increased vehicle traffic within pedestrianised zones.

BT claims the street hubs will be capable of providing free wi-fi speeds of up to one gigabyte per second within a 150 metre radius.

They won't have handsets but could be used by people to make free calls, through their mobiles, which are not time-limited.

An artist's impression of the proposed 'Street Hub' outside McDonald's in the High Street. Picture: BT.
An artist's impression of the proposed 'Street Hub' outside McDonald's in the High Street. Picture: BT.

Their large touch screens would also display advertising and local information about things like the weather, transport and community events.

Almost 1000 of the units have already been installed in cities and towns across the UK.

But they have proved controversial in numerous places, such as Edinburgh, where they were turned down on 37 out of 38 cases.

And that concern over their intrusiveness within conservation areas is one shared by Highland Council’s historic environment team.

Objecting earlier this month, they said: "The principle of these large monoliths, the primary impact of which is as physically obtrusive slabs with visually obtrusive digital advertising screens on either side, is not acceptable within the conservation area.

"The scale of these monoliths is huge, at 2.98m tall, 1.24m wide and 350mm deep. These structures, and their digital advertising screens, are entirely inappropriate within a conservation area.

"BT have clearly failed to consider the impacts upon the heritage context, and any public benefits are entirely outweighed by the excessive scale and inappropriate nature of these installations.

"All three locations will also adversely affect the setting of adjacent listed buildings. The structures are overtly modern and high-tech in their form, operation and appearance, which will emphasise and exacerbate their obtrusive and inappropriate impacts within this historic designated area."

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