Gloria in new mobile phone mast fight

Only months ago TV presenter Gloria Hunniford lost her daughter Caron to cancer. Now she is embroiled in a battle to stop a mobile phone mast being sited near her grandchildren's home.

Miss Hunniford is helping her son Paul campaign against a mast planned close to his Surrey home four years after Caron began a successful campaign against a mast near her local school in Cornwall.

The family fears the new mast will put dozens of children at risk of cancer.

Miss Hunniford said: "This is like a d骡 vu nightmare. "Caron and her husband Russ had to fight against an Orange mast being erected in Fowey in Cornwall and they got it moved to a field far away from the homes.

"It is horrible to have to worry about my grandchildren all over again."

In March a handful of residents received a "pre-planning" notification for an Orange 3G mast in East Molesey, Surrey, on green belt land near the River Mole.

Paul Keating alerted neighbours and more than 100 households are mounting a campaign.

Orange has recently sent a contractor to survey the site.

Mr Keating said: "It was really horrifying. There was this cherrypicker in the middle of an unspoilt beauty spot - it was as though the landscape was being raped."

Mr Keating and his wife and two small children, aged six and eight, live in Matham Road which would be closest to the mast. There are at least 30 children under 16 in the road.

He said: "If this goes ahead, my children will be sleeping with the antennas only 56 metres from their developing brains.

"I have already lost my sister to cancer this year and I have seen what mum has gone through as a bereaved mother.

"I can't bear to think of anything like that happening in my family again."

The proposed mast is also blighting house sales.

One family has been trying to sell up to move to France but two buyers have already pulled out after learning of the mast plans.

Mr Keating said: "This mast

will affect 15 different roads, about 100 homes with hundreds of young children within a 300-metre radius."

Orange has said: "It is our opinion that the installation will blend in with the surrounding landscape and we do not foresee any reason for the value of your home to be reduced as a result of the structure."

But the residents' real fury is reserved for the Environment Agency, on whose land the mast is proposed and without whose permission it cannot be built.

They have written to the chairman Sir John Harman saying a 15-metre-high structure supporting an array of antennas and a communication dish plus equipment cabinets, with not even enough trees to conceal it, is unlikely to blend in to the pastoral scene.

They were outraged by Sir John's reply.

He wrote: "The agency supports the expansion of the telecommunications industry in accordance with Government guidance."

He said that the agency "encourages appropriate design solutions and site selection".

Orange says that the mast will have "minimal environmental impact" and said the local council was "the decision-maker for these matters".

Mr Keating said: "We just can't believe that an organisation calling itself the Environment Agency can behave like this.

Without the agency's permission, the mast cannot be built, so why don't they just say no?

"The agency's 'mission statement' states: 'It's our job to look after your environment and make it a better place - for you, and for future generations.' What humbug!"

An Environment Agency spokeswoman said: "We have a duty to maximise income from our assets and underused land to reduce our demand on the public purse.

"The income from leasing the land will go towards funding flood defences and conservation work.

"Substantial scientific evidence has shown that exposure of radio-frequency radiation within current guidelines does not cause adverse health effects to the general population.

"It is with this knowledge that we feel comfortable in proceeding with the installation."