Villagers plead: Don't put up mast

Planning permission has already been given for the mast on land off Stonebridge Lane in Blackboys owned by Jamie Formolli.

If he decides not to let Orange go ahead with the development, he stands to lose a potential income of 5,000 a year.

But villagers argued, at a public meeting in the village hall on Tuesday, that there was more than money at stake. They were worried about a health risk particularly for their children.

Headteacher of Blackboys Primary School Gill Webb said if there was even the slightest chance of a health risk then the answer to Orange should be no and the best way to make sure masts were not put up elsewhere in the village was to combine forces against them.

Adele Lyons said a growing number of studies showed there was a health risk to people living near masts and asked why Mr Formolli would even consider having one on his land.

Villagers won a previous battle to stop a mast being built at Blackboys Nursery and Mrs Lyons said: 'You are a successful property developer, have a restaurant starting up and industrial units, why do you need 5,000?'

Mr Formolli said a risk to health from the masts had not been proven. He used a mobile phone regularly for business purposes, Orange was determined to put up a mast in the village because reception was poor there so it would be better to have it on his land where he could control what equipment went up rather than have them elsewhere like on street light poles in the village.

Any contract with Orange would contain a clause saying that if a health risk was ever proven then the mast would be removed, he said.

Mr Formolli told villagers that in making his decision he would take into account reports on any risk to health, a possible fall in value of houses because a phone mast was in the village and whether having the mast would be worth 'all the aggravation and grief' he was getting for 5,000 a year.

He had invited villagers to the meeting, he said, because he didn't want to be the 'faceless' man who put a mast up in the village. He wanted to hear what they had to say before making his decision.