PLANS for a mobile phone mast in an attractive part of Durham could be rejected this week.
Vodafone wants to put up a 24-metre tower with six panel antennae, two microwave dishes and an equipment cabin on land near the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery, at Aykley Heads.
But Durham City Council's development control committee will be recommended on Wednesday to refuse planning permission.
The site is part of the Durham City Conservation Area, the green belt and is an Area of High Landscape Value. Councillors will be told the tower could spoil the character of the area and views of the city's World Heritage Site.
A report to the committee says: "The applicants' one concession to the visual impact of this prominent tower, of utilitarian industrial appearance, is the offer to paint it the chosen colour of the council."
The tower would replace the mast in the main car park of the nearby city railway station.
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