Support for mast appeal

More than 200 people signed a petition calling for a mobile telephone mast in Southwell to be moved.

The No Masts In Southwell action group had a stall in the town to raise awareness of their campaign on Saturday morning.

They were joined by the MP for Newark, Mr Patrick Mercer, and Mr Bruce Laughton, the Southwell member of Nottinghamshire County Council.

The group wants telecommunications company O2 to move a mast it erected in September at the Telephone Exchange on The Ropewalk, Southwell.

The 15-metre mast is around 150 metres from Lowe’s Wong infants’ and junior schools.

One of the campaigners, Mrs Catherine Harriss, said the event had allowed them to explain their concerns and why they were against the mast’s location.

She said: “It is a great opportunity to launch a new campaign. We are looking for O2 to move the mast to a mutually agreeable area.”

The group feels the community was not properly consulted over the siting of the mast and is concerned no research has taken place into the long-term effects that emissions from masts have on health.

Mr Mercer said he understood the mast had to be put somewhere, but it was in the wrong place.

He said O2 had been arrogant and thoughtless in the way it had dealt with the community.

“The more discourteous they are to us, the more determined we will become,” he said.

“We actually live in a democracy. If the majority of the people raise their voices in protest, we will resist them.”

No Masts In Southwell’s petition is still available for people to sign in schools and businesses including the Co-op, Yummy Mummy’s Coffee Shop and the post office.

An online petition can also be downloaded at www.nomastsin southwell.co.uk

Mr Mercer will present the petition to Parliament.

Mr Laughton said the planning process needed to change so telecommunication companies did not get preferential treatment when submitting an application for a new mast.

He said: “The people of Southwell have not had a chance to say where they think the mast should go or to fight the application in the first place.”

The chairman of the town council’s planning committee, Mr Brendan Haigh, also signed the petition.

The town council objected to the mast when the application was submitted and had serious reservations on health grounds.

O2 said it followed the proper planning procedures and there is no evidence that emissions from masts have an adverse affect on people’s health.