North Lanarkshire Council has received a planning application for a new 25-metre phone mast in Cumbernauld.

The application is from Icon Tower Infrastructure Group, which intends to replace its existing 15-metre mast located near Tannoch Drive, Lenziemill, with a new, larger one along with related equipment including , six antennae, two dishes, five operator cabinets and a meter cabinet along with possible “ancillary development”.

The applicant states that this replacement is necessary as the existing mast cannot support the equipment which is now required to improve connectivity.

Icon Tower is a UK subsidiary of Radius Global Infrastructure, an international company which leases sites for electronic communications in 21 countries around the world, developing sites for other companies such as network operators to install their equipment.

Icon Tower was granted Electronic Communications Code recognition from OFCOM quite recently, in January 2022, as it believed it would bring two public benefits, specifically helping to drive investment and market competition, while also promoting the sharing of sites by different operators, with this sharing of sites designed to mitigate the visual impact of continued expansion of telecomms infrastructure.

Further information on the planning application can be found on North Lanarkshire Council’s website under the reference number 23/01065/PAMAST.