11:00am Sunday 3rd July 2005
WANSTEAD residents campaigning against plans for a mobile phone mast are taking direct action and enlisting celebrity support after planning inspectors ruled against them.
Phone company T-mobile have been attempting to get permission for a mast opposite the Aldersbrook bowls club in Aldersbrook Road for nearly two years, and have finally won permission from the Bristol-based planning inspectorate.
The site is just yards from Aldersbrook Primary School, and when news spread on Monday that contractors had arrived to start construction, Merlin Road resident Elizabeth Canavan ran to the spot to stop work.
She jumped in the hole that had been dug on the site to check for gas pipes and electricity cables, and sat down.
She said: "The workmen were very good. One suggested that we all have mobile phones, but I don't and infants and young children don't, and it's just 200 yards from the school where the signal will bathe them in emissions."
Mrs Canavan stayed at the site for three hours and eventually left after the men filled in the hole, but she has pledged to return should work resume.
She says a petition against the mast raised 315 signatures of whom 110 were T-mobile users satisfied with the coverage they already had in the area.
A group called Aldersbrook residents mast solution (ARMS) has been organised and yesterday they lodged an appeal in the High Court against the inspector's decision.
Television celebrity Uri Geller has agreed to sell T-shirts on their behalf at the Aldersbrook primary school fete on Saturday, July 9.
Mrs Canavan said: "This is a rallying call for people in the community. It's near the school and it's near people's houses and we need the community's support in fundraising and campaigning."
For details on the campaign, call 8530 2658 or visit www.maststop. com.
dyeatman@london.newsquest.co.uk.
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