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Only good news!

remembrance day phone box museum with lighting

Welcome to a post that is only good news – I’m sure we could all do with some.

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who knitted poppies for us to display for Remembrance Day this year. There were lots more than we expected. They were all displayed for two weeks around Remembrance Sunday. We have kept them all so we can use them again next year.

We lit the phone box every night over the period and it looked fantastic. We’d like to use lighting more often, but it’s quite costly and not very environmentally sound to use regular battery power. We have some ideas about how we might recharge the lights via solar, but need some technical help to implement it. So if you or anyone you know has the knowledge and would like to help – please get in touch.

museum decorated for Remembrance Day, we need help with lighting
Museum decked out for Remembrance Day

It will be lit again for the Christmas period. We do like to be sustainable though, which is one of the reasons why our museum audio player is ‘powered by you’, you turn the handle, give it a bit of welly and the sound plays. Come and give it a go.

Sea Mills Book available to buy again

Secondly, we have reprinted the Sea Mills 100 book, just in time for Christmas. You can order online here for £8.50 including UK delivery. It is also available from the Cafe on the Square, Sea Mills for £6 and makes a lovely gift or even present to yourself.

Finally, there’s news on the proposed 5G mast on the square. This has been rejected again. The developer could of course appeal and try to wear us down. However we hope that this most recent rejection (the third) will prompt them to come up with a better solution to giving Sea Mills 5G coverage.

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Threat of 5G mast returns to Sea Mills Square (Sep 2022)

A planning application has again been submitted for a 15 metre 5G mast on Sea Mills Square, just months after a very similar proposal was declined by the Planning Inspector on appeal.

In 2021, Bristol City Council planners rejected plans for a 5G mast and large cabinets on Sea Mills Square. The decision went to appeal with the Planning Inspectorate in Feb 2022 where the mast was also rejected.

CK Hutchinson Networks UK Limited have now submitted another very similar planning application for the square. This is for a 15-metre mast, it’s the same height as the one ultimately rejected by the planning inspector (even though Hutchinson claim it is shorter), but it is slightly slimmer.

Sea Mills and Coombe Dingle Together will be objecting to the proposed siting of the 5G mast on Sea Mills Square because of the effect it will have on the character and appearance of the area. Whilst we recognise the need for 5G in the area and welcome more coverage, we are against the siting of this particular mast, which will be approximately the same height as the Addison Oak (approximately 15 metres tall to the top of the crown).

Last time, hundreds of people objected to the proposed mast, which helped to get the idea rejected. To object this time, comments should be received by 17 October 2022, but if you are reading this after the date it’s still worth following the link to see if comments are still open. We have prepared this simple downloadable guide to help you make your comment and the kind of things you could say. There’s no need to write a long response, a paragraph or two is plenty. 

Comment on the application here
or you can email: development.management@bristol.gov.uk
or write to: Development Management, City Hall, Bristol City Council, PO Box 3399, Bristol, BS1 9NE

For further information, you can also read the previous rejection reports by Bristol City Council and the Planning Inspector (if the links are not working you can find these by searching on the Bristol City Council Planning website for the previous planning application 21/02990/Y )