Manx Telecom’s ultra-fast broadband plans have sustained yet another blow - after it lost an appeal to supply homes on the Tromode Estate via overhead cables.

Its application (25/90376/B) to install four 9m wooden telegraph poles with associated overhead wires to supply 11 bungalows on Eary Veg and four properties on Cronk Liauyr, was rejected by the planning committee in June.

Twelve letters of objection were submitted by residents, with one describing it as a ‘19th century solution to a 21st century need’.

Members of the planning committee and the constituency’s MHKs had urged MT to find a better solution.

The telecoms firm appealed.

Its appeal was recommended for refusal by the planning inspector.

And Lawrie Hooper, MHK, on behalf of the DEFA Minister, has agreed with the inspector’s conclusions that the appeal should be dismissed.

Manx Telecom has set a deadline of 2029 for the complete switch-off of its copper network, after which all services will be delivered through the fibre network.

It has previously warned that planning issues could delay the roll-out of high-speed broadband.

The government’s target is to bring ultrafast fibre broadband to more than 99% of properties island-wide.

The decision notice states that the proposed telegraph poles and associated overhead cabling would be ‘incongruous and intrusive’ and would detract from the character and appearance of the area.

It said that an ‘attractive and defining’ characteristic of the Tromode Estate is an absence of clutter.

‘That there might be additional costs associated with providing the fibre network below ground is insufficient reason in this instance to outweigh the material harm identified,’ it added.

An application for four telegraph poles to provide fibre broadband to homes on Slieau Dhoo, also on the Tromode Estate, was refused at the same planning committee hearing.

Planning inspector Jennifer Vyse said she would consider this appeal separately.