by Saxon East

Streatham MP and Government planning minister Keith Hill has swung his political muscle behind a residents' campaign to stop a giant mobile phone mast being built next to a much-loved park.

Mr Hill has rallied behind more than 400 Streatham protesters who have signed a petition against T-Mobile's plans for the 11m mast near the entrance of Hillside Gardens in Streatham.

Streatham householders fear the mast, with dish and two antennae, would ruin the appearance of the park, and are worried it could pose a long-term health risk to young children at a nearby playclub.

However, T-Mobile has stressed the mast is safe as it complies with radiation limit guidelines from the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radio Protection (ICNIRP).

Mr Hill has steered away from the controversial health arguments, and instead has written to Lambeth Council's planning department, saying: "I too oppose the placing of the mast, largely because it is in a conservation area. I have asked to be included in further correspondence on the matter."

But Nick McRae, chairman of the Friends of Hillside Gardens Park, went further by citing the Government-appointed committee recommendations of Sir William Stewart, who urged caution against mobile phone technologies.

Mr McRae said: "We should not take risks with vulnerable children, with phones and masts. That is something that the mobile phone company ought to take more notice of."

Because of residents' strong protests, it is rumoured the pre-consultation plans will move the mast further away, towards the Palace Road end of Streatham.

A council spokeswoman said the town hall had not received an official planning application, but it would follow the normal process if and when it arrived.

A T-mobile spokesman said: "We have submitted a planning application to the local planning authority and we await their decision. The site complies with all planning and ICNIRP guidelines."

12:30pm today

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.574034.0.mp_backs_antimast_campaigners.php


From Mast Network

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/micro_waves_effects_on_wildlife_animals.pdf

EMF Exposure - Animal Studies
http://members.aol.com/gotemf/emf/animals.htm

Effects of the electromagnetic fields of phone masts on a population of White Stork (Ciconia ciconia)
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/effects_of_emf_on_white_stork.pdf

Mystery of the silent woodlands: scientists are baffled as bird numbers plummet
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/540740/

Lack of nesting seagulls
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2069748/

Radio-tracking associated with ‘dramatic shift’ in water vole sex ratio
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/549254/

Invisible Poisons
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/756341/

by Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

25 February 2005

It has hardly been noticed, but it is another sinister warning sign of a world going badly wrong. Populations of some of Britain's most attractive woodland birds are plummeting at a rate that threatens them with extinction, and nobody knows why.

Precipitous declines in the numbers of some species, of up to four-fifths, have been registered over the past 30 years, but scientists are just realising what is happening, and they have no simple explanation.

In its scale and its range, the phenomenon is one of the most ominous events in the natural history of Britain over the past half-century. Perversely, the decline comes at a time when Britain is planting more woodlands than ever, and forest management has never been more sympathetic to wildlife conservation.

About a dozen species of small birds that have flitted through our woodlands for thousands of years are suddenly in serious trouble. This may be associated with climate change, linked to the damage that excess deer numbers are doing to the undergrowth in woodlands, or in some cases, linked to trouble for birds on migration routes to and from Africa.

The endangered species are less familiar than common garden visitors such as robins and blackbirds, which is perhaps why their disappearance has taken longer to register. But now a study, appearing next month, makes the picture clear for the first time.

It shows that five of the species - the spotted flycatcher, the lesser spotted woodpecker, the lesser whitethroat, the lesser redpoll and the tree pipit - plunged by more than three-quarters between 1966 and 1999, and continues to decline.

The population of the spotted flycatcher fell by no less than 85 per cent, and that of the lesser spotted woodpecker by 81 per cent. Another five species - the willow tit, the marsh tit, the woodcock, the dunnock or hedge sparrow and the willow warbler - fell by between half and three-quarters, and two more species, the songthrush and the bullfinch, fell by nearly a half.

Yet another group, for which there are no reliable numerical figures, is nevertheless known to have fallen significantly in either numbers or in range, or in both. These include the long-eared owl, the hawfinch and the nightingale.

In southern England, where the situation is worst, some of these species have virtually disappeared. "These birds are falling off the radar in a quite catastrophic way and we have no real idea why," said Graham Appleton of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Britain's leading bird research organisation. Three of its researchers, Rob Fuller, David Noble and Des Vanhinsbergh, produced the study with Ken Smith, a researcher from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

The most puzzling and perhaps most worrying aspect of the woodland bird decline, apart from its remarkable scale, is that there is no obvious single cause, as there has been with the dramatic and well-known decline over the past 30 years of British birds on farmland.

Species of the fields such as the skylark, the grey partridge, the corn bunting and the turtle dove have also dropped enormously in numbers, but the reason is well-known, the range of new agricultural practices that came in with the intensive farming revolution.

Turning these declines around by more wildlife-friendly farming methods is now official government policy, and may well eventually succeed.

But the difficulty with addressing the woodland bird decline is that there is no obvious simple reason for it, and thus no obvious simple solution.

In their study, which will be published in the March edition of the journal British Birds, the researchers offer seven possible causes which may be behind the declines. They are:

* Pressures on migrant birds during migration, or on their wintering grounds in Africa;

* Climate change in Britain itself, especially changes in the timing of the emergence of insects used as food, and the drying-out of woodlands;

* Reduction in the actual numbers of insects and other invertebrates;

* Impacts of land use on woodland edges and on habitats outside woodland;

* Reduced management of lowland woodland;

* Intensified habitat modification by deer, which eat the woodland bushes, shrubs and grasses, and stop regeneration of trees, reducing nesting areas and insect populations;

* New pressure on nests and young birds from predators, such as grey squirrels, members of the crow family, and great spotted woodpeckers.

But at present, these possibilities are speculative, and the true causes of an enormous change in Britain's natural environment remain a mystery.

©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=614558

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I have been battling with the NRPB for years and the pigeon racing orgs about the problems with birds from masts. I can always tell when the output on my local mast is up because the birds diappear. I have filled in numerous online surveys from the RSPB about birds in the garden. I made a hoohaha last two years about bats - we used to have a big colony here which totally disappeared when the mast were erected. Since then we have had a couple of odd ones. However since other masts have been put up (and I believe that my house is now in a hot spot) I haven't heard any for a while. The sparrow population has also gone down AGAIN since other masts have been put in the area.. I believe, watching the birds, that in a very small way there is an evolutionary change but it is too small. The most noticable thing is in the size of the birds - small chicks growing very quickly to large birds. Robins also seem to be 'immune' but I am talking about one family only as opposed to a lot 4yrs ago.

regards

sue fergusson

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It does seem odd that the bird associations haven't taken up the concept that the EMF environment is one birds are sensitive to. We've noticed it! I've saved your observations into a growing document of similar bits and pieces on non-human observations. I feel fairly convinced that the changing planetary magnetic field, coupled with military specials and regular communications, are really screwing a lot of the environment up. Some deliberate, but most quite unknowingly.

Andy

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Last Summer a large petition and many objection letters were raised because of my concern for the wildlife of Pagham Harbour Nature Reserve once a TETRA mast was installed alongside the area.

In the minutes of the harbour advisory board meeting of September 8th 2004, the following comment is lodged.

"A number of conservation organisations had been contacted in order toascertain if they had planned to carry out research on this topic, each of which had advised that the issue had been given low priority as it was extremely difficult to ascertain the reasons for changes in behaviour short term".

I had given all organisations a blow by blow account of the behaviour of the three orphaned thrush fledglings that had adopted our garden as a feeding ground and had become so tame that they tapped on the window for raisins and walked into the house if the door was left open. In July 2004 my area was hit by tetra testing emisions at high power, and swaths of the area were totally without any birds except for seagulls, pigeons and magpies, for 3 days.

Only two of our little thrushes ever returned to our garden, and this took over a week. They were very wary and nervous, would not come near us, their feathers were in poor condition and they mostly sat under bushes in a dejected way.

It has taken four or five months for these thrushes to trust us enough to stay put while we put out food. But they never tapped on the window or came into the house again.

During that period last summer we found several dead birds in the area.

I think it is time these wildlife organisations left their desks and joined the real world!

Sandi

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I have a friend who lives in Hampstead Norreys near Newbury. She used to exercise a horse and her route frequently took her near the M4 (on adjacent track). This horse was perfect in traffic, never took any notice of cars, the nearby busy road etc. Then a mast was erected near the motoway and he became very badly behaved, shied, tried to run away if she ever took him down there. She tried writing to the council and to the BHS (British Horse Society) but they were not interested. (Can give you more precise details if you want them) However, horses are very sensitive (hearing and otherwise) and it might be worth trying to find out if other riders have problems with newly erected masts.

Cheers, Ann

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The 7 horses with the same liver complaint were in the Kent area. They were special horses used for displays etc (a team of 12?) For this reason, they did not roam freely in the fields and were given specialist care. A tetra mast was put up on a neighbour's land 300 yards from their stables and after 4 months 7 of the horses contracted some sort of liver disorder which left the vet puzzled and unable to treat.

In Kent, 12 special horses for displays etc were not let out in the fields and had special care. 7 of the 12 contracted a liver disease and the vet could not treat or diagnose it. There was a TETRA mast in the neighbouring field. The owner of the horses was seeking help with this from Mast Sanity.

Sandi

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It was me who started the horse thing! I promised Andy fuller details, the story is:

A friend who lives near East Ilsley/Newbury used to exercise a horse for someone. She used to daily cross a bridge over the A34 where there was already one mast in existence - the infamous mast disguised as a tree. The horse was always absolutely fine about traffic etc until two more masts were put up on the other side of the bridge then he became quite unmanageable, leapt about, refused to cross the bridge etc. My friend thought about it and the fact that, if you put metal in a microwave you can hear the waves pinging about, and she concluded that microwaves were probably bouncing off vehicles on the road and he could hear it and was upset because of it. Anyway, she had to give up using the crossing and although she wrote to the council and BHS, she got short shrift.

A side issue to this is that she happened to know an elderly woman who lived on the hillside in a relatively isolated house close to the three masts. This woman began to suffer cancerous patches on her scalp, the cancer spread and she died within a short period. The horse has also since died, he was found dead in his field and the owners were surprised because he was just turned 20 which is quite young for a horse with a relatively easy life. You could say this is all something and nothing but I do wonder whether there are other horse owners with problems and one just doesn't hear about it in the rush to live our glorious mobile-enhanced life (gosh, I feel depressed about it all this morning!)

Cheers Ann

--------

I can relate the story of two such cases. Two farms, surrounded by masts, have experienced the problem of cancers in their animals. Over the last couple of years the one farm have lost 3 dogs and a racehorse to cancer (the cancer in the horse started in the eye and spread, I think to other parts) and the neighbouring farm lost their horse to cancer of the rectum last year.

Elsewhere in the village we have lost dogs who "go off their legs" - one household lost both of their dogs to cancers (one ended up with a cancer which was almost the size of the rest of his body!).

Sylvia

-------

A friend asked me to forward this.

Gary

This maybe of interest - I have 3 horses and in their field is a huge electricity pylon. The grass immediately under the pylon is yellow and sparse compared to the grass elsewhere. Also the horses will never walk under it!!!

Makes you wonder

Peace Be

jx


From Mast Network

--------

Electromagnetic pollution of the environment
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2955273/

Micro Waves Effects on Wildlife Animals
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/540756/

Radio tracking collar disturbs water vole breeding
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/4302051.stm

Invisible Poisons
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/756341/

One day we'll all know - Let's hope it isn't too late
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/444685/

by Colleen McDonnell

Attempts by Richmond upon Thames Council to ban new phone masts are being frustrated by government guidelines, the council leader said this week.

Cllr Tony Arbour, who represents Hampton Wick ward, opposes a proposed ten metre high mast at the junction of Normansfield Avenue and Upper Teddington Road, near Hampton Wick Infant School, on the grounds that it would be a health risk.

But he said the government's planning department promptly sent back a warning to the council: local authorities cannot put blanket bans on phone masts.

Following Cllr Arbour's declaration to local residents, expressing the council's opposition, the government department wrote: "Local authorities should not implement their own precautionary policies, e,g by way of imposing a ban or moratorium on new telecommunications develop-ment or insisting on minimum distances between new telecommunications develop-ment and existing development."

Cllr Arbour said: "It is sad that we are prevented from taking action which will safeguard the interests of the residents whom we represent. Nevertheless every application for a new mast will be subject to the strongest scrutiny. I am sorry that our members of Parliament have failed to persuade the government that Richmond and other councils should be able to act in the interests of their residents."

The government's firm stance is based on guidelines for local authorities in Planning Policy Guidance 8 (PPG 8), last revised in 2001.

The government statement said the planning system is not the place for deciding health and safety and that if a proposed mobile phone mast meets emission level guidelines local planners should not consider further health aspects when deciding the application.

There are already three phone masts located close by, along a small section of Kingston Road. Hampton Wick Infant school is within one fifth of a mile and St John the Baptist school within a quarter mile of the proposed mast. Hampton Wick residents and parents of children at the two schools are worried because questions still exist regarding the impact of mobile phone masts.

MP for Twickenham, Vincent Cable, who is currently supporting residents in their battle against the Ashley Road phone mast in Hampton, will soon receive a petition from residents protesting the proposed mast on Normansfield Avenue. He said: "We can expect a large number of new masts. The companies are trying to get as many up as possible in order to plug the holes in their network and to get permission before pressures grow for tighter planning rules on masts. Under existing rules it is difficult to stop masts on any other than purely planning considerations; but residents should keep up the pressure on the council and the government."

Included in the planning department's statement was a parliamentary exchange in which Yvette Cooper, the public health minister, said the 'precautionary approach' recommended by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones' report in 2000 has provided the basis for government policy.

She said: "The group's report did not recommend a ban on the construction of mobile phone masts near schools or any other site. What the report did do was make some specific recommendations for precautionary action for the use of mobile technology."

Sir William Stewart of the National Radiological Protection Board published a new study in January warning that if mobile phones do damage health, then children will inevitably be at greatest risk. His report also called for a review of the planning of base stations. According to an article published by the BBC, Sir William has also said he does not favour mobile phone masts being situated near schools.

3:12pm Thursday 24th February 2005


From Mast Network

by Lawrence Marzouk

A campaign is gathering pace against a mobile phone mast to be erected next to an Edgware school.

Residents, representatives of the Holland House School, Broadhurst Avenue, Edgware, and local Tory councillor Brian Gordon have attacked plans to install three antennae at Mowbray House, Edgware.

Stephen Bernstein, Holland House's chair of the board of governors, commented: "We are very concerned at the decision: the Mowbray building is a stone throw away from the school."

Mr Gordon added: "I very much share these concerns and I am in the process of making a direct approach to Vodafone to persuade them to change their plans for this site."

Encouraging news came this week as Barnet Council rejected a bid to install a 10m monopole in East End Road, East Finchley, near the junction with Windermere Avenue.

Sue Liu, of Pavilion Mews, Finchley, fought the East Finchley installation purely on the basis of planning regulations, despite her concerns that new 3G masts could cause danger to health and put children at nearby schools at risk.

She said: "You have to know to oppose these things on planning reasons.

"I'm worried about the health reasons, but you have to trawl the UDP Unitary Development Plan and look for things to apply to your area."

4:59pm Thursday 24th February 2005



From Mast Network

by Colleen McDonnell

APPLICATIONS to attend Hampton Junior School are being withdrawn by parents who fear the mobile phone mast located 10 metres away from the playground may be approved for yet another upgrade. Recognised as one of the best primary schools in the borough, the school is now facing a growing number of parents so strongly opposed to the 23-metre 3G Vodafone mast that they no long wish their send their children to school there.

Local parents and residents, Catriona Nason and Cassandra Wilcox, have set up Hampton Parents Against Ashley Road Phone Mast, to get the mast removed.

Dr Vincent Cable, MP, will be speaking at the group's next meeting on Wednesday evening at the school. He will be explaining some of the legislative background and discussing other instances of contested masts in the local area.

Mrs Wilcox said: "Hampton Junior School is one of the best in the borough. It is unacceptable that parents like myself are forced to choose between their children's health and education. The mast must be moved. We demand that Richmond council and the LEA work with Vodafone to find an alternative site.

"I want to ensure that the lives of our children and future generations are not endangered by mobile phone masts. I deplore the way this government and local planning authorities are ignoring the valid fears of the people they purport to serve."

The mast was first installed in 1994 and moved to its current position in 1997. The mast was later upgraded to a higher strength for 3G technology.

Mrs Nason, chair of Hampton Junior School Association said: "The school is by far the best Junior School in the borough and we have decided to take our children there due to its excellent reputation, results and atmosphere. My children love the school and the teachers. The mast should be re-sited to ensure parents never have to make such a decision."

The next public meeting will be on Wednesday, March 2 at 8pm at Hampton Junior School. All are welcome. The campaign website www.mast-campaign.com will be online in the first week of March.

3:17pm Thursday 24th February 2005

From Mast Network

Nice little jaw blow for the telecom industry in yesterdays Argus newspaper (Sussex wide).

Gary..


WE`VE ALL GONE MOBILE PHONE MAD

I am appalled to read about the vast number of phone masts which are going to be erected, especially in residential areas and near schools. We have gone mobile phone mad. They are lethal - the increase in brain cancer will be enormous especially in young children and business people, who are never off them.

How did they manage before?

Mobile phones are good for emergencies only. Parents who buy them for their children are asking for trouble unless they teach their children when to use them.

Protests must go on - we did without mobile phones before and we can do so again -but, unless the medical world publicises the dangers very soon, there will be a great deal of heartache in many homes in future.`J. Adams, Matlock Road, Brighton


From Mast Network