1:52pm Friday 25th January 2008
A Mill End mother who chained herself to a tree on to protest against the building of a phone mast near her children's primary school has insisted this weekend that the fight goes on.
Mother-of-two Lisa Soryano took the unusual action of chaining herself to the tree after learning that planning permission for a mast in Berry Lane, Rickmansworth, by German owned T-Mobile had been granted on appeal by a government inspector.
Plans for an eight metre mast (disguised as a telegraph pole) on a grass verge opposite numbers 71 and 73 have been twice rebuffed by councillors, who described the plans as incongruous, obtrusive, and a potential health hazard to pupils at the nearby Arnett Hills Primary School, just 80 metres away.
Residents are now trying to raise money to fund a legal challenge to the ruling before the deadline for action passes in three weeks' time.
Braving a bitterly cold morning, Mrs Soryano added her voice to a mass demonstration held on Saturday and attended by more than 150 people.
She said: "I'm normally a very quiet person but this really is too much.
"Nothing is more important to me than my children's health and believe this mast is a risk to them and other local children.
"We've got a lot of support in the community and have already raised a good amount of money to pay for a lawyer."
School headteacher Tracey Ali has given her full backing to the campaign. She said: "My school is just 80 metres from this site and I am very worried about it.
"They are on that site all day every day, even if they don't live nearby.
Supporter Yasmen Skelt has campaigned against phone masts since successfully suing the Government in 2000 to prevent the building of an Orange mast outside her home.
She said: "The evidence is clear, mobile phones and masts are a risk to health.
"The fact is that this is a German-owned company attempting to impose on us something that would be illegal in Germany.
"In Germany it is illegal to build a phone mast so close to a school.
"Like a lot of other European counties, this type of thing is taken very seriously there.
"But in this country we seem to let the companies do what they like."
A debate about the safety of mobile phones and masts has been ranging for years, with the industry and (to a very large extent) the Government on one hand and a number of concerned scientists on the other.
Ill effects linked to masts include tumours, headaches, sickness, insomnia and even nosebleeds - although the validity of these claims is yet to be proven.
The most comprehensive report to be published in the UK was the Stewart Report, released in 2000, when independent experts examined all available evidence to assess the risk to health posed by the industry.
Its ambiguous findings (expressed as nine conclusions) are used, however, by both sides of the debate to support their findings.
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