PLANNERS have refused permission for a BT street hub, displaying adverts on both sides, on land at Morlaix Avenue in Truro.

Officials claim the development, next to the coach park in Fairmantle Street and adjacent to Marks and Spencer, would have “an unacceptable impact on highway safety”.

Rejecting planning application PA26/04949 on Monday, September 21, officials said the 3m-high hub would be “a visually prominent telecommunications structure”, to be positioned less than 500mm from the kerb of the A39 which carries “significant volumes of vehicular traffic” as well as accommodating pedestrians and cyclists.

It would, they, added, encourage users “to stop, gather and interact with the structure immediately adjacent to the highway and would introduce a distraction within a sensitive highway environment to the detriment of pedestrian and highway safety”.

In addition, the hub would constitute “an incongruous and visually intrusive feature in a part of the public realm characterised by mature street trees, landscaped verges, open views and relatively uncluttered streetscape, eroding the attractive green approach into and through the city”.

A representative of Cornwall Council’s Highway Development Management – West department considered the hub sufficiently distracting to “give cause to increase risk of rear shunt collisions”. They added that Morlaix Avenue “is a major arterial route through Truro, when vision should be prioritised on straight ahead and to the right on entry to the roundabout”.

Martin Mumford, Designing Out Crime officer for Devon and Cornwall Police, drew attention to “a potential for the hub to generate issues around crime and disorder”, adding: “There is the possibility, unfortunately, that it could be targeted given the location.” He questioned whether the spot was covered by the city-centre CCTV.

Truro City Council objected to the scheme as “unsustainable and unnecessary”, with consent for a similar facility within 100m and “no clear need” for an additional hub.

Planning for seven Pulse Smart Hubs around the city were approved in September 2025. As well as hosting advertising between 6am and midnight, these will provide local information, free Wifi and community safety features 24/7, including a 999 button, defibrillator and built-in nasal naloxone opioid antagonist, used for the emergency treatment of drug overdoses.

These have also been approved in Newquay. In both cases, councillors took part in vigorous debates. In Truro, Cllr Loic Rich said: “Everyone has a smartphone, and we have adverts everywhere, all the time. Having it on the street in your face isn’t healthy.”

“For me, this is more about the benefits for companies to make a whole lot of money.”

An application was made in February to install hubs in Bude. “Bude is a small seaside town, not a large city,” said Carole Bray, via Cornwall Council’s planning portal. “These are not at all in keeping with the town and would serve absolutely no benefit to local, independent businesses.”

In Bodmin, illustrative photos showed the hubs sited next to the Turret House clock and in front of the stone commemorating the role of Bodmin lawyer Thomas Flamank in the furtive 1497 Cornish rebellion, leading Cllr Andy Coppin to brand the proposals as “disrespectful”.

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Both applications were subsequently withdrawn.