Parents urged to oppose phone mast plan

HOMEOWNERS and parents are being urged to oppose plans to put a mobile phone mast close to a children's play area.

Russell Claydon

HOMEOWNERS and parents are being urged to oppose plans to put a mobile phone mast close to a children's play area.

Planners will meet next month to decide if O2 should be allowed to build a mast just 150 yards from Alexandra Park in east Ipswich.

A councillor is urging residents to object due to health concerns, as well as its visual impact and has already heard back from two worried residents.

Ipswich Borough Council's planning committee will meet on April 1 to make a decision on the Grove Lane application.

But Kevan Lim, Suffolk county councillor for the town's St Helens ward, believes it flies in the face of health advice.

“For me there are two main issues the borough council should refuse this application on,” he said. “They refused an application for a mast on land adjacent to Belle Vue Road and Woodbridge Road in 2007 based on visual impact and in my view this is no different. It is probably worse.

“More significantly, is this issue about the children's playground and the very clear guidance which discourages masts on or near to children's schools or recreational sites, which this clearly is.”

Mr Lim was out in Grove Lane yesterday delivering letters about the application to households urging people to oppose the mast.

Last night, on hearing the concerns about placing the mast so close to a children's play area, O2 said it would consider revising the application.

James Stevenson, communications manager, said: “We will go back and look at the location of that again. We will see if there are any alternatives.”

But he disagreed that it could have a detrimental effect on the health of children.

“We do not think there is any danger,” he said.

Anyone wishing to register their comments on the issue can visit www.ipswich.gov.uk or call or write to Phil Sweet in the borough council's planning department.