PORT chiefs have pledged to take all possible action to help residents worried that an expansion project will cause huge TV interference problems.Householders in south Felixstowe fear giant new 117 metre high cranes will wreck their television reception – just as previous extension projects at the container terminal made sets unwatchable in other parts of the resort.

PORT chiefs have pledged to take all possible action to help residents worried that an expansion project will cause huge TV interference problems.

Householders in south Felixstowe fear giant new 117 metre high cranes will wreck their television reception - just as previous extension projects at the container terminal made sets unwatchable in other parts of the resort.

But bosses at the port say they are already aware of the potential problem and are making plans to deal with it.

Suffolk Coastal council's planners reckon residents living to the east of Landguard Terminal - which the port wants to redevelop as part of a plan to double its capacity - who pick up their signals from the Sudbury transmitter could be affected.

However, following a survey of the area, the council believes that only around 20 homes and 200 caravan owners will suffer.

There may be a need for repeater stations to be set up in the town - large parts of which suffer poor TV reception - to deflect TV signals, aerials may have to be adjusted and some sets re-tuned.

The port has also agreed to work with NTL to have Channel 5 added to the Ranelagh Road transmitter in the town centre as a benefit to residents.

The council is now planning to meet with the port for discussions about the potential impact on TV from the 13 new, larger quayside cranes which will handle cargo on the new terminal.

In a submission to planners, Felixstowe town clerk Susan Robinson said cranes had caused "major problems" for residents and disruption to TV signals.

Six years ago, following a previous expansion of the port, the town council had arranged with generous sponsorship to provide a transponder relay station to boost the signal for people living on the estates in the west of the town.

"We hope there will be no future problems but if there are that they will be properly mitigated as this has been a serious issue in the past," she said.

The transponder, which is housed on the roof of Anzani House in Trinity Avenue, and the relay station in Ranelagh Road were both put up because of problems with cranes blocking signals.

The Ranelagh Road one went up in the 1980s after a long campaign by long-suffering people living in the resort's West End who could only get snowy and fuzzy pictures or shadows of cranes moving across their screens.

Many people had given up trying to watch their TVs or relied on friends in other parts of the resort to video favourite programmes for them.

n Are you worried about cranes causing TV interference - do you suffer from poor reception now? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk