Protests stall police radio plan

PROTESTERS have delivered a fresh blow to controversial plans to build a £2.9bn nationwide police radio network. A campaign against the siting of radio masts near homes on health grounds has already slowed the building of the network by mobile phone giant MmO2.

And now, MmO2 has been forced to drop proposals to site high- tech masts in a Cotswold village after a local backlash.

The Airwave network is already used by police in Lancashire and Greater Manchester and is due for adoption by all forces by 2005.

Applications to build masts in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Suffolk have been blocked. And protesters last week forced the company to scrap plans to site an Airwave mast in Amberley in Gloucestershire.

Lynne Edmunds, joint coordinator for the pressure group Mast Action, said the scheme was to have gone to a planning inquiry next month, but MmO2 withdrew the application. The Police Federation, which represents most officers, will decide in the next few weeks whether to urge its members to boycott the project because of health worries.

Airwave uses a wireless technology known as TETRA which offers wider coverage than existing systems, improved reliability and would allow different police forces to communicate directly with each other.

But it also emits low-level electromagnetic radiation from its masts and handsets. Opponents say this has been associated with illnesses such as heart problems and tumours.

Police Federation chairman Fred Broughton said: 'We are concerned about officers being used as guinea pigs. If our concerns are not answered we may advise our members not to use the system.'

Airwave will cost mmO2 £500m to install but should generate revenues of £2.9bn over its lifetime.

Vice-president Jeff Parris said: ' The system has been approved at the highest level and I believe that the Home Office ' s response to the Police Federation should ease its concerns.'