Hamstead and Highgate Express

editorial@hamhigh.co.uk

22 July 2005

Andrew Brightwell

A CASH-strapped Highgate church is facing stiff opposition from angry neighbours over plans to place a mobile mast on its ancient spire.

Father Andrew Meldrum, vicar of St Anne's in Highgate West Hill, is weighing up whether to allow an antenna at the Grade II-listed church.

The church could get £10,000 for the deal with T-Mobile, but is consulting with all residents within 150 metres of the church before making a decision.

Deborah and Adrian Laing, who live in Langbourne Avenue near the church, are furious that St Anne's is even considering the plan.

The couple, who are both solicitors, believe that mobile masts are a health hazard and have already started a campaign to stop it.

Mr Laing said: "My wife has already photocopied the letters and is pinning them to trees around the Holly Lodge estate.

"We will do everything in our power to make sure that this does not happen. We can see the spire from our home and we have five young children.

"The church can expect us to take every legal means at our disposal to stop this. We think it is a disgrace."

In his letter to locals, Fr Meldrum said: "If the installation were to proceed, St Anne's would receive an annual fee.

"This would be used to the benefit of the church and community and could provide some stability for long-term projects.

"In terms of the effect of the installation on the surrounding area we are assured that any installation would have no visual effect on the church building or the neighbourhood, as any antennae and accompanying equipment would be housed within the spire of the church."

If permitted the mast would be used to boost coverage on T-Mobile's 3G network. The church is currently engaged in a major renovation project and is expecting to complete work on its roof in mid-October.

While it would like to raise more money to support further works, including £25,000 worth of improvements to its bells, Fr Meldrum said the Parish Church Council (PCC) has not decided what it would use the cash for.

He said: "We deliberately haven't considered what we would do with the money because we don't want it to influence our decision on whether we accept the mobile company's offer."

Those who might want to help the fundraising efforts at St Anne's can send their donations to Father Andrew Meldrum, 106 Highgate West Hill, London N6.

andrew.brightwell@hamhigh.co.uk

Gloucester Echo

10:30 - 21 July 2005

Mobile phone giant Hutchison 3G took on the wrong people when it decided to put up a mobile phone mast in Prestbury. For Prestbury doesn't take anything lying down. And if it thinks that the health of its children, let alone that of its adult population, is at risk, it will come out fighting. That's what happened yesterday when more than 300 people in the village turned out to let it be known in no uncertain terms that they do not want a phone mast yards from Prestbury Play Mates playground and St Mary's Infant and Junior School.

They are not stupid. They have researched the evidence both for and against mobile phone masts. And whilst there isn't any evidence that they are definitely harmful, nor is there any proof that they're not.

Omega there is much evidence that mobile phone masts are definitely harmful. See http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_science.html

On that basis, the residents of Prestbury are joining those in Leckhampton and refusing to be bullied into having a mast on their doorstep.

The arguments about mobile phones and their alleged threats to health rumble on. And until there is conclusive evidence one way or another, companies such as Hutchison 3G are going to face one battle after another.

No one in their right mind is going to accept a potentially lethal weapon on the roof next door - and no amount of rental revenue will convince them otherwise.

So the people of Prestbury are right to stick to their guns.

They may all have mobile phones. They may all curse when the reception is lousy. But those are minor irritations in the face of unknown health risks.

The solution is for phone companies to get together with local authorities and find suitable sites in faraway locations.

Let's face it - a phone mast is no more ugly and a lot less intrusive than an electricity pylon. It can't be that hard to find a proper place for them to go.

Until that happens, there's one thing for sure - putting them next to schools and playgroups is a non-starter.

TAUNTON residents are livid because a mobile phone mast, thought to have had planning consent denied, is being built.

Mobile phone service provider O2 sent workmen to Shoreditch Road to start work on the 15-metre mast on Tuesday morning.

Surprised homeowners told engineers work could not continue because Taunton Deane Council had refused permission for the mast in February.

O2 denied this and told the workmen to continue.

But a spokesperson for the council said: "The planning authority at the council refused consent to O2's request for the erection of a telephone mast at Shoreditch Road on February 14, 2005."

For the full story, see this week's Somerset County Gazette.

21/07/2005 Molesey News and Mail

ELMBRIDGE Council has stopped a 12-metre phone mast being erected on land near to Somerset Close in Hersham.

In June, telecoms operator Vodafone sent the council a notice of its intention to erect a column supporting three antennae and an equipment cabin near to dozens of homes.

Full planning permission is not needed for any phone mast less than 15 metres tall. Operators must notify the council where they intend to put up a mast, which then gives the opportunity for the council to refuse prior approval.

Objectors were notified of the council decision on Tuesday. Tara Howland, who was involved in the protest, told the news & Mail:

“I’m very pleased, however I feel it’s just we may have won the battle but we may not have won the war.

“They can now go to appeal and that appeal. It’s a question of waiting to see what Vodafone’s next move is. I’m very, very pleased that that initial application has been turned down but I’m not naïve enough to think it’s the end of the story but we will keep on battling.”

Norwich Evening News

22 July 2005 12:22

A Norwich MP has branded the current planning on the siting of mobile phone masts as totally inadequate.

Campaigners from around the country joined more than 100 MPs and a panel of experts at a mast meeting at Westminster in London chaired by Dr Ian Gibson, Norwich North MP.

"It's completely inadequate, doesn't take into account the health fears of people who live near them, and doesn't take into account the Stewart Report," said Dr Gibson, referring to the flaws in the planning laws as they currently stand.

"They talk about consultation but I've never met anyone who feels they've been consulted about the location of a mast," he said.

"This is an important public health issue following the advice of Sir William Stewart and the meeting has supported the proposal that all mast applications should be subject to full planning."

Dr Gibson, a long-time supporter of the Evening News' Put Masts on Hold campaign, said local people should be fully consulted and weight given to concerns about the perceived effects of masts as well as actual effects.

Dr Gerd Oberfeld, a leading public health expert from Salzburg University, Eileen O'Connor of the Radiation Research Trust, and Dr Michael Clark, of the Health Protection Agency, were among some of the experts at Tuesday's meeting.

Stuart Eke, from the Mobile Operators Association, was also at the event which told how there was a lack of independent research into the possible effects of over exposure to microwave radiation from some 40,000 masts in the UK.

"The Government should fund research into areas where cancer clusters have arisen round telecommunications masts," said Dr Gibson.

"The Office of National Statistics should provide the full information on actual cases of cancer and motor-neurone disease."

It was also agreed that the TETRA system used by the emergency services should be "reviewed in all aspects of its safety".

Campaigners from across Norfolk have added their support to findings from the meeting and hope to be supported by the Government.

Graham Barker, a campaigner who lives on Lloyd Road, Taverham, near a replacement mast on Fakenham Road, said: "There's no doubt that health effects are a big concern – if they are going to take that into consideration we're all for it.

"What we would like is for anything that does come in to be retrospective but I don't suppose it will be."

Mr Barker said he also hoped that any changes to planning laws would apply to planning inspectors and make it more difficult for them to uphold appeals by phone companies.

Matthew Pennington, 43, a member of the Campaign Against Tetra Siting (CATS), lives on Yarmouth Road, not far from a controversial O2 mast on top of North Walsham police station.

"I certainly agree that the planning system should be gone over carefully," said Mr Pennington.

"But it still doesn't solve the fact that we still don't have an adequate safety guidance on something everyone says we don't know for sure is safe."

The Citizen Gloucestershire

10:30 - 22 July 2005

Residents have united in opposition against plans for a mobile phone mast near their homes.

A proposal for a 15-metre high antennae on a pavement near the Prince of Wales pub, in Cainscross, has been lodged with Stroud District Council. The plan submitted by mobile phone company Hutchison 3G comes only months after the owners of the pub, Enterprise Inns plc, rejected a plan to install a mast on the car park.

This followed opposition from residents including landlord Graham Lee.

The proposal would see a mast sited just three metres from the previous plot, although not on land owned by the pub company.

And the community has again reacted angrily to the new plan despite reassurances over the design and safety of the device.

Mr Lee, who has been landlord of the Prince of Wales for around 13 years, said he had concerns over both the design and health implications of the mast.

"It's not a very good site," he said.

"We have got children ourselves and it will be about 20 or 30 feet away from the pub, which is somewhere a lot of people gather socially."

Mr Lee, who lives in the pub with wife Sarah and children Jessica, 16, and Thomas, 14, said pub regulars had also voiced concerns over the device.

"My neighbours particularly are very concerned as it is on their doorstep and I don't blame them," he said.

Councillor Darren Jones, a member of Cainscross Parish Council, said the community was shocked at the new plan.

"People mainly have fears over the health implications of the mast," he said.

"I know there's no concrete evidence there are any implications but there's no concrete evidence that there aren't effects on health.

"I think a precautionary approach would be better than just rubber-stamping applications like this."

But Hutchison 3G spokesman Mike Dobson said the mast complied with all health and safety regulations and would not be visually intrusive.

"From a visual perspective we have tried to make it as least intrusive as possible," he said.

"And from a health point of view we do meet the very stringent international health and safety guidelines that are set down by the International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).

Omega see "ICNIRP: A well packaged web of lies" under: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/752060/

"And so local people have nothing to fear."

Planning officer Andrew Case at Stroud District Council said health implications could not be considered and a decision was expected before August 4.

By Stuart Pollitt Litchfield and Burntwood Chronicle

Jul 22, 2005, 11:53

A new phone mast has been proposed in south Lichfield, The Chronicle can reveal.

T-Mobile wants to put a 12 metre mast on the corner of Shortbutts Lane and Birmingham Road to serve the south west of the city.

The mobile phone giant has investigated eight sites in south Lichfield where it considered putting masts to improve its 3G service.

The Shortbutts Lane proposal comes months after a similar plan for a mast in Sainte Foy Avenue was abandoned following criticism from residents, councillors and developers. But Staffordshire County Councillor for Lichfield South, Terry Finn, said this proposal was not better.

"What a place to try and put it," he said. "I don't know where they are coming from."

T-Mobile said the proposed mast, on a wide grass verge adjacent to a busy road and trees, was the best of the eight options they considered in the area.

But the company revealed the site was only given an amber suitability rating under national guidelines because it was within 50 metres of people's houses.

Councillor Finn said that was too close, especially with the new 175 new home development on the former Bison Concrete site off Shortbutts Lane now under way.

"It's extremely close to people's houses. There would be quite a few houses within 50 metres," said the county councillor.

"I think it's awful. It's the gateway to the city - it's welcome to Lichfield with a telephone mast."

"I can't understand why they have to have them so near to the houses."

Councillor Finn added that any new masts for 3G coverage should be mounted on existing poles.

Alan Begley, who formed the Boley Park Action Group to stop a planned mast in Darnford Lane, said the Shortbutts Lane proposal was "totally unacceptable" because it was near houses and King Edward VI School.

He said: "Yet again we have an example of a mobile phone company riding roughshod over the community to be honest and not putting the health of residents and school children first."

Mr Begley added that 12 metre masts were worse than taller poles because the radiation had less chance to diffuse before it hit the ground.

T-Mobile's Sophie Parviez said: "It is just to further improve the network.

"A lot of the masts are for the 3G service, which is part of T-Mobile's ongoing commitment to provide customers with an unrivalled service."

By Rhys Blakely, Times Online

Terrorists in Iraq are pressuring telecoms operators to maintain the country’s mobile network so it can be used in their ongoing campaigns of violence, according to the country’s telecoms regulator.

Dr Siyamend Othman, chief executive of the Iraqi National Communications and Media Commission (NCMC), said that that he was aware of companies being "threatened by terrorists for delays in setting up masts".

He added that he was aware of several pieces of anecdotal evidence suggesting operators have been given guarantees of safety to maintain their networks.

He said that the security problems facing mobile companies were "different in nature" than for companies working on other infrastructure, such as the sewage system, in the re-building of post-Saddam Iraq.

"Terrorists like mobile companies," Dr Othman said.

Insurgent groups are understood to rely on mobile phones to co-ordinate attacks in Iraq, a country where only 3 per cent of the population has access to fixed line services.

Mobile networks have also been used by bombers outside the Middle East. The Madrid bombings of March 2004, which killed 191 and wounded more than 1,400, and the Bali bombs in October 2002, which killed 202, were both triggered using mobile phones.

According to experts, several remote bombs aimed at coalition troops in Iraq have been triggered using phones.

However, Ali Al-Dahwi, the chief executive of Altheet Telecom, which holds the mobile license for the region south of Baghdad, said that mobile networks had overwhelmingly been a force for good in the country and that he would never open a dialogue with a terrorist organisation.

"If you were to give these people one centimetre, they will ask for one mile," he said. "I can only speak for my company, but we thank God that we have been spared any such threats. In truth, in the south there is very little activity.

"If our competitors have received such threats I am sure they would not make them public," he added.

Dr Othman was talking yesterday at a conference in London held to discuss the allocation of the next round of mobile licences in Iraq, at a time of heightened security alerts in the British capital, following the bomb attacks on July 7.

Despite serious security issues, the prospect of high profits in Iraq, where the fixed-line telecoms network was devastated by years of war and sanctions, has led to high levels of interest from international companies keen to enter the rapidly growing mobile market.

Among the larger companies attending the event were Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens. Dr Othman said several major mobile operators had expressed an interest in entering the Iraqi region.

Jul 21 2005

By Sarah Gaffney, Ormskirk Advertiser

PLANNERS are looking favourably on proposals to build an 02 mobile phone mast at Platts Lane in Burscough, says the company.

The 17.5 metre communications tower was originally proposed for Briars Lane but after objections the Platts Lane site was suggested.

Jason Isherwood, from the Poplars estate near the site, has a four week old baby and schools his children at home.

He is concerned about the health problems that the mast could cause to him and his family, although O2 has said there are no health risks.

He said: "The big argument that O2 put across was they had years of research from military use. I said it's not satisfactory, how many heavily pregnant women do you have in a war zone?

"The reality is the amount of research on it is not conclusive and it's not at the point where people are satisfied. You only have to cast your mind back to a time when they said Sellafield fall-out was safe and that was the government guideline."

St John's School and Mr Isherwood's home school are both close to the mast, but 02 said that this would not stop it being built.

An O2 spokeswoman said: "As a rule we look at around 200 metres round the mast. We consult with local householders who are immediately close to the proposed site. We take advice and guidance from local planning agencies as well.

"We are talking about consultation. It's not that a mobile phone operator is not allowed to put up a mast anywhere near a school, they are sometimes put on roofs, the situation is whether or not we consult with a school.

"We have moved it half a kilometre away and we then wrote again to the parish council and other householders who we had not corresponded with. We received quite a number of letters with regards to Briars Lane, we received six letters of objection to the Platts Lane site."

* The application will be discussed at a meeting on July 28 in the district council offices in Ormskirk.

Wiltshire Gazette and Herald 21.07.05

PRESSURE from electors has forced members of Pewsey Parish Council to reconsider its position over plans for a mobile phone mast on the village soccer field.

More than 50 villagers attended the parish council meeting on Tuesday and their delight was obvious when the council agreed to think again.

The council owns the soccer ground between the High Street and Ball Road and in the past agreed to allow the Pewsey Vale Football Club to sub-let the site following an approach by service provider O2, who wanted to put up a phone mast.

The deal would be worth £80,000 to the club over 20 years.

However, the parish council objected to initial plans for the 17 metre mast and it was turned down by Kennet District Council.

This week an appeal by O2 was dismissed by the planning inspectorate on the grounds that other possible sites around the village needed more evaluation.

But even before the appeal decision was announced, O2 had submitted plans for a taller mast on the site.

Objectors, fearing possible health risks to children playing near the mast, felt the parish council had let them down by agreeing that the site could be sub-let.

On Tuesday there were allegations from some villagers that the councillors had failed to represent the views of the electorate.

Councillors agreed to re-debate whether the soccer club can sub-let to O2. Its planning committee will discuss the mast application on Wednesday at 7.30pm in the parish offices.