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Alternative sites to Woodside Road? |
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We are concerned about the health risks, the costs, and the capacity of TETRA to provide effective police communications.
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As reported in the Worthing Herald and ‘Airwave happy to acept possible mast switch from current footbal club site’ (Gazette, 5 April 2004) ‘Other sites for TETRA’ (Herald, 6 April 2004) You may have seen the story in the papers, and be gratified to see the consideration of O2 Airwave. Not the product of an open public meeting, but an initiative by local Conservatives, led by Tim Loughton MP. Please note: whatever the political context of the Airwave contract, TETRAWATCH will not politicise the health and safety of any community. Background A meeting was agreed between O2 representatives Josh Berle and Susan Moore, Conservative representatives and some of the concerned residents, to consider in a non-confrontational setting what alternatives might be available to the mast at Woodside Road. Prior to the meeting, O2 also met with the president of Worthing FC, landlord to TETRA and other mobile masts. We learn with very great regret that threatening letters have been sent to the President. This is completely against the ethics of this group, and we condemn this approach entirely. This is an argument to win by reason and morality. Missed opportunity by O2 Airwave It is a shame that the offer could not have been made more in public, since the O2 representatives have been present at a number of meetings around Sussex where the same concerns have been raised as at Woodside Road. It would be a valuable precedent to recognise that TETRA masts near people’s houses are a bad idea, because they do straight away harm people’s health. (It would be quite wrong to describe these effects as ‘only’ electrical sensitivity, since they are debilitating, whatever you call them. We are not yet talking about the long-term health worries.) The real alternatives; and why What O2 are looking at is other available mast sites in Worthing. O2 Airwave can add antennae to any existing mmO2 mast (or by agreement with another operator, any existing mobile mast) and no planning permission is required. This is how Woodside Road acquired its TETRA installation! But how much of Central Worthing is non-residential? The alternative sites in Worthing to be tested for comparable coverage to Woodside Road, are:
We have since asked O2 Airwave to turn the mast off, directly. This is what they said. Likelihood of success O2 Airwave erected an illegal mast at Rogate, and only a 24-hour vigil by residents at Christmas prevented it being connected. O2 was required to remove it, and after a lengthy battle they did. O2 Airwave went to appeal against the residents of Rogate and won. They now have a mast. The same story was repeated at East Marden, and we all saw Dibden on the news. In Littlehampton, Petworth and Coventry we have written evidence that O2 Airwave did not adhere to planning requirements to consult with schools in the main beam of TETRA masts. If they had, the school governors would have refused. If O2 Airwave will not remove a mast from an illegal place, or from unconsulted schools in contravention of the ten commitments, why should a company being paid by a Labour Government accede to any particular local Conservative request, just because local residents don’t like it? They certainly do not want to move this on grounds of health, because that would be an admission of its effect. Important! What did we say from day one on our home page? We are not nimbys. We do not want to ‘donate’ our TETRA mast to anyone else. We just want Woodside Road turned off straight away. July 2004 update In a meeting between Tim Loughton MP, O2 representatives, Council planning representatives, two residents and one or two others, O2 declared that of the seven alternative sites, six were unsuitable as not providing coverage. Whether that is strictly true, or whether they had other complications is by the by, but the seventh (the Environment Agency building, which we predicted would be the choice months ago) was apparently suitable but the landlord refused. A suggestion by Tim Loughton that O2 might put up two half-power masts either end of town (but do we want two? O2 Airwave could up the power any time they like in the future) will be responded to within two weeks... No real discussion about the health effects, how people are feeling or what will happen to them over the years. The message from O2? ‘We are putting masts wherever we like, you have no say, we do not care about you at all. Tough.’ Outstanding planning issue TETRAWATCH has been pursuing all the while the small matter of whether the TETRA complies with planning. Sitefinder in February described the mast as 17 metres. To this, O2 added a couple of metres in the form of a mast extension, to which the TETRA antenna is fixed. Was this permitted? Sitefinder now describes the same mmO2 mast as now shorter (16.5 metres), but higher than the TETRA (16.3 metres) that stands over 2 metres above it!
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 TETRA, Worthing FC. Exceeds planning terms, erected without any consultation and affecting many surrounding residents’ health and well-being. And now, below, with no further planning application, this mast is GSM, UMTS and TETRA. Three out of eight masts now at this site surrounded by dense housing.  |
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