Koo Stark leads phone mast fight

Koo Stark today became the latest campaigner to add her voice to protests over the siting of mobile phone masts near schools.

She spoke out as a proposal was made to establish a new mobile radio base station in South Kensington, an area in which about 4,000 children attend school.

Critics of the masts fear the electromagnetic radiation they emit could cause cancers, particularly in the young.

The Government-funded Stewart Report published in 2000, which investigated the health effects of mobile phone masts, failed to reach a firm conclusion about their health risks but acknowledged that "people's well-being may be adversely affected by the environmental impact of the mobile phone base stations sited next to houses, schools or other buildings".

Miss Stark, a former girlfriend of

Prince Andrew who has suffered from breast cancer, and whose daughter Tatiana, seven, is at school in the Kensington area, said: "There is ample evidence to show that siting mobile masts in such close proximity to children whose immune systems are developing puts them at risk of developing cancer.

"We are putting our children at risk if we allow this sort of thing to happen. I don't want to expose my child or anyone else's to any enhanced risk of cancer. The only truly effective way to deal with cancer is to prevent it. I have started a charity called Keep Abreast, with the sole aim of the prevention of cancer."

The proposal by telecommunications company T-mobile to site the mobile radio base station at Jury's Hotel in Queen's Gate is being considered by Kensington and Chelsea council.

There are four schools in the affected area - Queen's Gate School, the Lyc饬 Glendower Preparatory School and Falkner House. "We had no idea about the plans for the mast," said a spokesperson for Falkner House.

Sarah MacAulay, chairman of the Glendower Parents' Association, is arranging a petition.

"It seems extraordinary that

Glendower school was not notified of the proposal, as

this is required under government guidelines," she said.

Campaigners are also fighting proposals to put up mobile masts less than 100 yards from another Kensington school. T-mobile wants to install six base stations near St Mary Abbots primary school, where concerned parents include news presenter Kirsty Lang, Forward Poetry Prize founder William Sieghart and his wife, documentary-maker Molly Dineen.

One of the campaigners, television journalist and local resident John Cookson, said: "It is completely irresponsible to put them up so near to a school."

Eileen O'Connor, a 40-year-old businesswoman, heads Scram, a group that campaigns against the "irresponsible" siting of mobile phone masts. Two years ago, Mrs O'Connor developed breast cancer while living 100 metres from a mobile phone mast in Sutton Coldfield - as did five of her neighbours, all within a sixmonth period.

"I was oblivious to the mast and what it might do," Mrs O'Connor said. "Mobile phone masts in the UK have the highest power output of any worldwide. We are asking for lower power output from these masts."

A spokesman for T-mobile said: "Our network operates within strict international guidelines recognised by the World Health Organisation, and we are confident our base stations do not present a health risk to any member of the public."