RESIDENTS living in a village near Newton abbot could soon benefit from 5G coverage as an application to install a 20-metre high phone mast is submitted to planners.

Submitted to Teignbridge District Council (TDC) on July 25 by Telent Technology Services Limited on behalf of EE Ltd, 25/01259/TEL is seeking permission to build a 20-metre high phone mast on land to the west of Townsend Hill, Ipplepen to provide improved 2G, 4G and new 5G capacity and coverage.

The application also includes provision for three antennas, two dishes, a GPS node and two, ground-based equipment cabins, as well as a seven by seven metre timber fenced ‘compound’ at the base.

TDC will make a decision on or before September 19.

‘The requirement for a new mobile phone base station in this area is to provide improved mobile phone coverage to Ipplepen, including local residents, visitors, and businesses’, the planning statement for 25/01259/TEL reads.

‘The mast height is the minimum required in order to ensure operational efficiency - a structure with such a height is needed in this locality because of the local topography and existing tree cover’, the statement goes on to say.

The statement says that the closest residential property to the proposed site is just shy of 100 meters due South East.

For the site to be fit for purpose, the antennas must have a clear line of sight, so the site has been designed with the headframe peaking over any surrounding trees.

‘The height of the mast has been decided by EE’s Radio engineer as the lowest capable of providing the minimum required coverage and thus any further reduction in height would render the apparatus redundant’ the planning statement says.

A previous application, 24/01485/TEL, for a 17.5 metre high tower was rejected in 2024