Leyland club vows to fight phone mast 90% rent drop

Fox Lane Sports and Social Club said the cut was devastating

A sports club is campaigning to stop the rent it receives from having a phone mast on its land being cut by 90%.

Fox Lane Sports and Social Club gets about £7,500 a year from EE but following a change in legislation it is set to be reduced to £750.

The club in Leyland, Lancashire, said the cut was devastating at a time when "businesses are desperate for income".

EE said it worked hard to keep good relationships with landlords.

The 2017 Electronic Communications Code (ECC) governs the relationship between mast operators and landowners and its aim was to speed up the roll-out of new masts and improve connectivity across the UK.

It also gave telecoms companies more powers, allowing them to vastly reduce many rents they paid.

David Bradshaw, from the club, said it was still not fully open following coronavirus restrictions and "all forms of income are extremely important to us".

"We've received about £90,000 over the last 16 years. If you talk about the present offer over the same period, we'd probably get £11,000," he told BBC Radio Lancashire.

"We're going to defend our cause with whatever they throw at us."

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An EE spokesperson said: "We work hard to ensure good relationships with our landlords and we share the common interest of delivering modern communications that support both them and the communities in which they are based.

"Connectivity is vital for rural communities and never more so than during the pandemic, where our network has helped to support families, businesses and public services."

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has been consulting on the impact of the revised ECC and is considering further changes.

"Our priority is levelling up the country with better mobile coverage and to do so quickly we need fair prices to be agreed for the right to access land and install new equipment," a spokesman said.

"We are aware of concerns raised about the code and have confirmed we will legislate to encourage fairer, faster and more collaborative negotiations with network operators."