Pressure to Move Hampton Mast

11.22.10am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 28th Feb 2005

There is to be a public meeting in Hampton Junior School on Wednesday 2nd March in the face of mounting pressure from parents and the school to have the Ashley Road telecoms mast removed. It is a few yards from the school and the school is seriously concerned that some parents, who are worried about he mast, are starting to withdraw their children.

Vincent Cable, MP for Twickenham has already met the top executives of Vodaphone in Parliament and he persuaded them to look at other options including relocation to another site, but they have yet to reach a decision on the matter. Vincent Cable said: "this mast was erected in the 1990s before the rules were established requiring planning permission or the telecoms companies had agreed on a Code of Conduct. There would have been uproar had they suggested that site for a new mast when there are other sites well away from schools or residential accommodation reasonably nearby. Unfortunately the mast is there quite legally and we are dependent on the goodwill of the company, or the fear of bad publicity, to get them to incur the expense of moving it. The deeper problem is that large numbers of people simply don't accept the assurances from government that there is no health risk, especially to children."