A CAMPAIGNING mum says she will paint her fence with slogans after her protest banners were removed.

Karen Kelly, 47, of Manor Crescent, off Akers Way, Moredon, wants a mobile phone mast moved from outside her home.

On Tuesday Mrs Kelly and other local protesters put banners up around the 45m O2 mast, which has not yet gone live.

But yesterday she returned home from shopping at lunchtime to see the banners being taken down and put into a van by a workman from the company.

"When we put them up I thought they might get pulled down by children," she said. "But I was amazed when I saw them being taken down. It must have touched a nerve."

Mrs Kelly is worried about the health risks of having a mast so near her home. She has two children Summer, eight, and Morgan, 12. Morgan has an auto-immune condition which makes him susceptible to disease.

Now she says she is going to put up more banners in a bid to keep her campaign going.

A spokeswoman for O2 confirmed the banners had been taken down but said the mast was a key part of the network in Swindon and that most people accepted you cannot have mobile phones without having masts.

The firm has said it has to rely on current research, which says there are no health risks.


No health risks?!
http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_science.html

Essex Chronicle

http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=170875&command=displayContent&sourceNode=170757&contentPK=12228642

18:00 - 14 April 2005

Plans for a mobile phone mast in Tolleshunt D'Arcy have been rejected for a second time. Telecommunications company Orange applied for planning permission for the 10m mast from Maldon District Council's north western area planning committee on Monday night.

Orange submitted an almost identical application to the one that was rejected last year, hoping to site the mast on the junction of Beckingham Road and Festival Gardens. The only difference between the two applications is the height. Last time the phone company were asking permission for a 12m pole.

Phone companies need not apply for planning permission to erect masts under 15m, they simply have to give a detailed notification to the council concerned. But the council can call for a planning application on the grounds of siting or appearance.

Monday night's committee decided a planning application was necessary, so the notification automatically became a planning application, which they rejected.

Rebecca D'Arcy, from Orange, said it was unlikely Orange would lodge an appeal.

"What's more likely is we will go back to the drawing board and look at other options and areas, as we have identified a need in the area.

"Obviously we are disappointed because we had reduced the height to try and minimise visual impact and had hoped to get this through."

15 April 2005

Caroline McClatchey

WORRIED parents in Highgate have formed an action group to stop a mobile-phone mast going up near their children's school. Mobile-phone giant O2 wants to put a 12.5m mast on the pavement in Aylmer Road, just 200m from Highgate Primary School in North Hill.

Lead campaigner Andrea Klein, who has a son at the 366-pupil school, held a crisis meeting with headteacher Gill Pinkerton and the chair of governors on Wednesday.

- Ignored:

She said: "We are forming an action group and we are definitely going to let O2 know that the school is not prepared to allow for a beam of greatest intensity to fall on its grounds. "We are concerned about the biological impact and the associated health risks of the waves. "Until there's conclusive evidence, a precautionary approach should be adopted. We would like any mast to be as far as possible from any school."

As the mast is under 15m, O2 only require what is known as a general permitted development order, falling short of full planning permission. The application for a third-generation (3G) mast in Aylmer Road has been lodged with Haringey Council.

Jim Stevenson, O2's community relations manager, said: "It's a pity we weren't invited to the meeting on Wednesday. We want to speak to people; we are not completely wedded to sites. "We encourage people to suggest alternative sites. We haven't got planning permission yet; as soon as we do, the mast will go up in the next month or so. We did write to a lot of people in the area through our consultation process, but we didn't get anything back. "I have since received complaints to which I have replied."

Mrs Klein has recently joined protest group Muswell Hill Against the Masts, which is opposed to masts near Haringey schools. To sign the petition against the O2 mast contact

muswell_hill_against_the_masts@yahoo.co.uk
caroline.mcclatchey@hamhigh.co.uk

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/content/camden/hamhigh/news/story.aspx?brand=NorthLondon24&category=Newshamhigh&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newshamhigh&itemid=WeED14%20Apr%202005%2014:41:27:277