Phone Mast Fears

Residents have objected to plans to erect a 15 metre high mobile phone mast in the grounds of Essex and Suffolk Water behind the Keene Hall. Permission was refused by the Borough Council last year but Mercury One-to-One has decided to appeal. About thirty residents came to a planning meeting at Keene Hall where concerns about possible health hazards and the visual impact were expressed to representatives of the communications company and the owners of the land in question. Nick Sharples, community relations manager for Mercury, said that if there were health risks they would not build the mast. ‘We have got around 22,000 of these around the country and are confident they are safe and do not have any risk to the public’.