CAMPAIGNERS have lost their fight to block the extension of a mobile phone mast in Stowupland.Telecommunications giant Hutchinson3G (UK) Ltd was given the go-ahead by Mid Suffolk district councillors yesterday to put up a 21m mast with antennae and dishes and an equipment cabin at Green Farm, Thorney Green, Stowupland.
By James Fraser
CAMPAIGNERS have lost their fight to block the extension of a mobile phone mast in Stowupland.
Telecommunications giant Hutchinson3G (UK) Ltd was given the go-ahead by Mid Suffolk district councillors yesterday to put up a 21m mast with antennae and dishes and an equipment cabin at Green Farm, Thorney Green, Stowupland.
It replaces an existing 15m mast – and means residents will be subjected to a view of a mast nearly half as tall again.
Despite their protests – supported by Tory MP David Ruffley who objected to the original planning application for the mast two years ago – members of the council's planning control committee gave the nod to the controversial plan.
Health fears and concerns that telecommunications company Hutchinson3G UK, who say they want to improve coverage in the area, had not conducted a thorough search for alternative sites for a taller mast were top of residents' agenda.
But though both district councillors for the area, Mike Shave and Carol Jones, both spoke against the plans, the proposal was given the go ahead.
Keith Welham, who lives just 100 yards from the mast in Thorney Green, who also spoke at the meeting, was dismayed to see the plan approved although "no logical" defence was forthcoming at yesterday's meeting.
He said that the chairman Terry Green said that if councillors failed to approve the application, another one would arrive for a different site elsewhere.
"The way it was done was very disappointing. The chairman Terry Green proposed to the committee that they accept otherwise it would all take up too much of their time. They are there to protect the countryside and all they want is a quiet life," he said. "We are so disappointed that we don't know what we can do."
Weblinks: The National Radiological Protection Board - www.nrpb.org.uk
The World Health Organisation www.who.int/peh-emf
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