Stars keep up pressure on phone mast company

nlnews@archant.co.uk
28 March 2007

ACTORS Neil Morissey, Joe McGann and Cliff Parisi are pictured (left to right) with Lynne Featherstone MP

THE fight isn't over yet - that is the message from TV stars, residents and Lynne Featherstone MP to a mobile phone company wanting to erect a mast outside their homes.

Residents of five roads in Stroud Green - including actors Neil Morissey, Joe McGann and Cliff Parisi - have united and won the backing of the Hornsey and Wood Green MP against Hutchison 3G's plans to install a 13.5 metre-tall mobile phone mast on a covered reservoir in Mount View Road.

Although Hutchison 3G recently won its appeal to overturn Haringey Council's rejection of the mast and base station, residents remain against it.

At a demonstration by the proposed site on Sunday, residents from Mount View Road, Womersley Road, Ferme Park Road, Ossian Road and Mount Pleasant Villas were joined by Ms Featherstone to show their solidarity.

Robin Derham, co-ordinator of the Mount View and Womersley Roads Neighbourhood Group, said: "These masts are being foisted on communities against their wishes, and the 'precautionary approach' to their location - advocated in the Stewart Report - is simply not being observed.

"The whole process appears to be weighted against us, and the only chance of overturning the decision is by judicial review, which can be a cripplingly expensive gamble.

"Ordinary people should not have to suffer the burden of costs to defend the air around them."

A 250-signature petition has been gathered against the mast, which would sit in a conservation area if built, just 20 metres from the nearest homes and 200 metres from St Peter In Chains RC Primary School.

Ms Featherstone added: "Until we are 100 per cent certain of the effects on people's health, I fully support a precautionary approach. Masts should not be built within feet of people's bedrooms as will be the case here. The mast will also spoil one of Haringey's best views over the city.

"The fact that residents are being forced to launch an expensive court action shows yet again how unfair our planning system is for the people who will be most affected by new developments. It is a real case of David versus Goliath and developers cannot be allowed to get away with this."

As the mast has already been given Government approval through the planning inspector, it could be erected at any time.