We Are Not Phone
Mast Guinea Pigs
Bexley Times
May 11, 2006
Angry residents have vowed to battle a mast being built
near their homes.
Mobile phone giant Orange has
submitted plans to Bexley council to install a 10 metre mast
at the junction of Penhill Road and Harcourt Avenue,
Sidcup.
Ian Brooks, of Penhill Road, claims residents
have fears over potential health risks and believes the mast
will be an eyesore.
He said: "We will fight this
application to the very end. The residents in our area feel
very strongly against such a mast, we have already fought off
two previous applications from another firm.
"The
Government has now conceded that radiation levels may not be
safe and now we are expected to be guinea pigs under a mobile
phone mast until the facts are proven."
Resident Wade
Freeman said: "We will obviously do everything in our power to
prevent this mast from being erected, not merely from a health
perspective, though this will be our main point of concern,
but also from an environmental view."
Orange spokesman
Jacqueline Sibanda said: "Base stations are extremely low
powered and in order to provide good coverage, they have to be
located close to the demand.
"Communities have been
happy to have radio and television transmitters all around
them for the past 80 years.
"Base stations are
essentially low powered radio transmitters and therefore there
is no reason for them to be considered more dangerous than
broadcast transmitters."
A Bexley council spokeswoman
confirmed an application had been submitted.
She added
that the consultation period is due to end on May 24 and it
will go to a committee meeting on June 15.