CofE deal on mobile masts

The Church of England is today heading for a massive row after clearing the way for phone masts to be installed in the spires and towers of thousands of churches.

Church authorities have signed a deal with Quintel S4, which will install equipment, pay rent to churches on a nationally agreed scale - which could be up to £10,000 a year per mast - and then rent the masts out to telecom companies.

The Church insists the decision on whether to accept masts must lie with individual vicars but the deal sends a clear sign to parishes that the hierarchy approves in principle.

Until now, the Church had no official policy on phone masts.

Of its 16,000 properties, 5,000 churches have already expressed an interest in signing up for the aerial masts and 200 local deals have already been agreed. The Church's agreement with Quintel S4 is certain to encourage many more, especially since it could provide cash-strapped parishes with a major source of income.

A report in today's Property Week reveals that for Quintel "the deal represents a coup because it has landed access to a huge reservoir of prime sites for the telecoms industry".

The news has infuriated phone mast objectors, who are concerned about the potential health and safety risks of such installations.

The Diocese of London has already warned clergy at its 480 churches to exercise "great caution" over such deals because, it said, "the jury is still out on whether there is any harm from mobile phone masts".

Individual churches such as St Mary's in West Hampstead have accepted offers from operators worth several thousand pounds a year. St Barnabas in Beckenham faced a large protest from locals who discovered it was considering allowing Hutchison 3G to put a transmitter inside a cross on its roof.

John Hunt, of campaign group Mast Action UK, said: "The Church's deal with Quintel will tear churches apart as they have to choose between the carrot of regular easy money and the divisiveness the masts will cause within their communities."

Mr Hunt is alarmed that the vicar of his neighbourhood church, St Martin's Gospel Oak, is talking to a mast company.

"The Government cannot say and is not saying that the radiation coming from mobile phone equipment is safe and neither can the Church.

"They had a choice of whether to opt for money and risk damaging their communities and even losing their congregations on what is a major health issue, or carry on the traditional role of the church, teaching peace of mind and that God comes before material things.

"They have chosen Mammon."

'Selling the cross is immoral'