Preston city centre communication hubs rejected

Plans to install a series of new ‘communication hubs’ in Preston city centre have been refused for a second time.

The facilities – a modern take on the traditional phonebox, featuring a seven-foot-tall digital advertising screen – were first proposed for five busy locations 18 months ago.  

At that point, the units – which offer free, ultrafast wi-fi and also come with heart-starting defibrillators – were rejected by Preston City Council, because of the cluttering effect it was deemed they would have on the street.

In Focus Network Limited, the firm behind the proposal, recently repeated its request for permission to place the hubs in the same five spots – but has now been given the same answer by the authority’s planning officers for near-identical reasons.

This time, as well as being refused on the basis that they would overcrowd the public realm, the fact that other similar facilities have since been given the green light in the vicinity also counted against them in most cases.

The units, complete with 32-inch video screens, had been suggested for three locations on Fishergate – one outside The Vapor Room, opposite the Fishergate Shopping Centre, another in front of Popeyes Chicken, close to the junction with Cannon Street, and a third outside the Skipton Building Society, near Chapel Walks – along with sites on Church Street, outside Miller Arcade, and Lancaster Road, in front of the Guild Hall. 

The hubs would have stood 2.6-metres tall, a metre higher than the five that were put forward by New World Payphones – four of which were approved by the city council earlier this year – but slightly shorter than three for which BT has secured approval, two only after an appeal to a government planning inspector. 

The In Focus facilities would also have provided free phone calls to landlines and charities, device charging, rapid connection to emergency services, mapping services and public messaging capabilities.

The city council concluded that they would, variously, have “a significant, detrimental impact on visual amenity”, “increase…visual clutter in the wider street scene” and  “be noticeably larger in scale and brighter in illumination than any advertising already present” in several of the areas, some of which sit within conservation zones.

Planning chiefs also noted that “extensive…improvement works” had been undertaken in the city centre over the past decade, “reducing the amount of street furniture and street clutter along the highway”.  The proposed hubs were considered to be at odds with those upgrades.