New mast plan provokes anger (From Warrington Guardian)

New mast plan provokes anger

ANGRY residents are mounting a strong protest over the proposed siting of an 18-metre high mobile phone mast on green belt land.

Mobile phone company Vodafone have put forward a proposal to have a mast installed on Blackley Hurst Hall Farm in Newton Road, Billinge.

But the Residents and Tenants Group of Billinge are worried saying that if this goes ahead it would mean three mobile phone masts on the same location.

The St Helens Star featured in great depth at the time the huge effort put in by local residents to try and stop the second mobile phone mast going up.

However their efforts failed when the government gave it the green light.

One local resident, Christine Gedman, told the Star: "I am furious about what is happening here. There are a number of other companies also wanting to build things and it just doesn't seem right.

"Any objections we have regarding the mobile phone mast get sent to St Helens Council. We want to protect our countryside. There are a lot of children who like to play outside especially in the summer and with all these mobile phone masts going up then the radiation factor really is of huge concern."

A spokesperson for Vodafone, told the Star: "The original application for a lattice tower at Blackley Hurst Hall Farm was refused. We took on board what the local authority said and we have redesigned the installation as a lower level pole structure which we hope the council will find more acceptable."