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Battle over pub phone mast plan
FURIOUS
residents are fighting plans to put phone masts on a pub roof - just
yards from two schools and a children's playground.
Mobile phone company Vodafone wants planning permission to put
controversial G3 masts on the roof of Monkey Chews pub on the corner
of Queen's Crescent and Marsden Road in Gospel Oak.
It is believed to have offered the pub's owners up to £25,000 a year
to install the masts, disguised as a chimney.
Residents fear radiation from the masts could put children and
pensioners at risk and are pleading with council chiefs to turn down
the application.
The site is just yards from a popular children's playground, the
nearby St Silas Church playgroup, Haverstock Secondary School and
Rhyl Primary School. Joan Stally, secretary of the St Silas Tenants'
and Residents' Association, said: "Children flock from all over to
play around here and there are quite a lot of elderly people living
very close to the site. We just don't think it's worth taking the
risk because no one knows how safe these masts are."
Holborn and St Pancras parliamentary candidate councillor Jill
Fraser (Liberal Democrat) has started a petition against the mast
plans.
She said: "We've already got lots of masts in this area and we just
don't need any more. Camden Council won't let residents put TV
dishes on the side of their homes but they'll let phone companies
put up these masts."
A Vodafone spokeswoman said emissions from the aerials would not go
above 150 watts. "That's about the same level given off by a strong
light bulb," she said. "And people must bear in mind that this
installation is to provide local people with service because this is
an area where we've had problems with coverage.
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