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Saturday, October 13, 2007 | 15:00
FURIOUS residents today spoke of their anger at a telecommunication company's bid to install a phone mast near to their homes.
If granted planning permission, the 12.5-metre mast will be installed on land between Belle Vue Road and Woodbridge Road, in Ipswich.
Residents claim the mast poses a potential health risk, is unsightly and unnecessary.
Rosemary Cowdell, of Belle Vue Road, said: “We are desperate to stop this from happening.
“The government has said there's a slight health problem for certain people with these masts so what if I or you are one of those people?
“It's close to a school as well.
“We have a wonderful signal here anyway so who will it benefit? Certainly not us.”
The residents have now put together a petition and put posters up in the area in the hope of garnering support for the campaign.
A number of letters of objection have also been sent to Ipswich Borough Council.
The planning application for the mast has been submitted by phone company O2.
Jim Stevenson, a spokesman for O2, said: “The requirement is that we can sustain all of the O2 customers in the area and to make sure that they've got access to the O2 network as and when they want it.
“We have got over 70 million customers and that's a lot of people to make sure we can keep the service there for.
“On the question on the health and safety of the mobile phone masts, a report by the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme has just given us a clean bill of health for mobile phone base stations.”
The application is due to be decided around October 17.
Are you concerned about the safety of mobile phone masts? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.
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