Digital hubs refused permission

A bid to install a series of digital advertising screens across Preston city centre has been rejected over concerns they would clutter the street.

The displays would have formed the visual centrepiece of five proposed ‘communication hubs’, which were also to offer free WiFi and device charging – and include lifesaving defibrillators.

However, town hall planners have refused permission for the 2.6-metre tall, one-metre wide facilities, which they said would also have been harmful to some of Preston’s most historic areas.

The units, complete with 32-inch video screens, had been the subject of planning applications for three locations on Fishergate – one outside The Vapor Room, opposite Fishergate Shopping Centre, another in front of Tessuti, 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.

In Focus Public Networks Ltd., the company behind the plans, said it had sought to locate the hubs “sensitively” – and described their 30cm depth as “slender”. However, Preston City Council planning officers were unconvinced they were suitable for their proposed positions.

Reports outlining the separate refusals of permission noted that Fishergate, Lancaster Road and Church Street had all undergone “extensive public realm improvement works” in recent years, which had reduced the “street furniture” along the routes.

In the case of the hub planned outside Tessuti – one of three that would have been in a conservation area, had it been permitted – officials said it would have “a significant unacceptable adverse impact upon the character of the street by increasing street clutter in an area where efforts have been made to reduce it”.

They added that it would be “overly large and prominent within the streetscene” and it was also considered damaging to the setting and significance of the Winckley Square Conservation Area. Near-identical conclusions were reached for the unit proposed close to Chapel Walks.

The hub earmarked for outside the Guild Hall was the only one of the five that drew concerns from Lancashire County Council’s highways bosses, who said that it would need to be moved further back from the kerbside so as not to interfere with visibility for motorists emerging from Ward’s End.

However, city planning officials said it would, in any case, result in “visual clutter” and affect views from within the Market Place Conservation Area, although it would have sat outside that designated space.

No reports were published detailing the specific reasons for refusing the units proposed opposite the Fishergate Shopping Centre or outside Miller Arcade, the latter also being in a conservation spot.