FURIOUS residents on a Felixstowe housing estate are fighting against a massive mobile telephone mast being built on their doorsteps. Coronation Drive residents are incensed that a telegraph pole, taller than an average two-storey house, could be built on their street and possibly threaten the health of their children.

FURIOUS residents on a Felixstowe housing estate are fighting against a massive mobile telephone mast being built on their doorsteps.

Coronation Drive residents are incensed that a telegraph pole, taller than an average two-storey house, could be built on their street and possibly threaten the health of their children.

People living in the six private houses near the grass verge at the junction of Coronation Drive and Grange Road, where the ten metre pole is proposed to be built also believe it may encourage vandalism, devalue their property and be an eye sore.

Dot Paddick, from Felixstowe town council, said: "They feel absolutely gutted."

"We're going to have a meeting on tomorrow night at seven. We're all going to protest up there and they're going to hand in letters and they're all going to have their say about why they think it shouldn't be there."

Norman Hawkes, one of the campaigning residents who received a letter from Suffolk Coastal council about the planning application submitted on behalf of Hutchinson 3G last week, said: "We have got enough things over there without another pole. When I first moved in here it was a plain piece of green with four trees on it."

Mr Hawkes who moved in to his house when the estate was built in the 1950s said that since then new pieces of equipment including an electricity substation with an unsightly chain fence, a bus stop and other storage boxes have been built there.

"They're a very unsightly thing to look at - whether it will upset televisions I don't know. It won't be the end of the world. The only big thing I can think about is whether they will take the value of the houses down, which I'm sure it will by £20,000 or £30,000."

Steve and Caroline Brown who have two children aged five and eight were more concerned about their children's safety. They had researched the effects of mobile phone masts especially on children's health and said they could not find a statement from a mobile phone company claiming that there was definitely no danger from the mast being placed in a densely populated area.

They said that not only would it effect their children but also those who play around the area near the sports ground.

But the couple also fear that problems like children hanging around and vandalising the area would be increased because there would be something new to interfere with.

WEBLINK:

www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk

www.doh.gov.uk/mobile.htm