BT digital hub on Queensferry’s Station Road gets council approval
BT has been given the go-ahead to install a digital advertising hub on Queensferry’s Station Road, weeks after a similar plan was refused in Shotton.
Flintshire County Council approved the application for the hub on the pavement next to 26 Station Road.
The unit, known as a Street Hub, carries two large digital screens, one on each side, which display rotating advertising along with council and community content.
The application was described in council papers as the relocation of an existing BT phone box to facilitate the installation of the new unit, although there is no BT phone box at the application site.
Conditions attached to the consent require the screens to be dimmed at night, with the council setting a tighter brightness limit than the figure given in BT’s own product specification for the unit.
The council also requires details of cleaning schedules, electrical inspection and street works notification to be agreed in writing before installation begins.
It said the conditions were required in the interests of highway safety.
The Queensferry decision contrasts with a near-identical BT application in Shotton, which Flintshire planners refused last month.
That proposal, for a Street Hub on Chester Road West outside the Savers store, was rejected on three grounds.
The council said the Shotton unit’s scale, design and visual prominence would be out of keeping with the area and would harm the streetscene.
It also found the location would damage the setting of a nearby listed building, and that the unit’s position on the pavement would compromise pedestrian safety.
The Queensferry application was submitted to the council in February by Libre Solutions, the agent acting for BT Group.
The Street Hub is a free-standing structure carrying two 75-inch screens.
The units provide free public Wi-Fi, free phone calls and device charging.
BT says the local council is allocated five per cent of screen time on each unit, equivalent to 876 hours a year, for community and council messages.
The council also asked BT to consider bilingual signage to reflect the area’s cultural diversity, noting that Flintshire’s planning policies seek to give equal prominence to the Welsh language.
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