5G mast to be built outside Walsall school

Students at Bloxwich Academy on Leamore Lane will soon see a 20 metre tall monopole with six antennas, three remote radio units and two dishes when daydreaming out the window.

A couple of hundred metres from the site is Charlie Caterpillar’s Day Nursery and special education school, Mary Elliot Academy.

Delivered by telecoms infrastructure company Cornerstone, the mast, in fir green, will be installed on the footpath just outside railings of Bloxwich Academy, next to Willenhall Lane bus stop. On the ground will be two equipment cabinets and a GPS module.

The works form part of Cornerstone’s network improvement programme.

Cornerstone said there is a ‘specific requirement’ for a new base station at Leamore Lane in order to provide Bloxwich with improved 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G services.

It said: “Whilst there are no avoiding views of the mast, it will be viewed as accepted street infrastructure in context of other vertical emphasis including street lighting and trees.

“The development is therefore considered to strike the best balance between meeting the specific network requirements for the operator and the demand for modern communications infrastructure in the local area.”