Celebrity Backing for Mast Campaigners

11.49.31am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 30th Jan 2006

The local parent-led action group which has campaigned against telecommunications masts next to Hampton Junior and St Edmund's School in Whitton, has enlisted TV celebrity Esther Rantzen who met Vincent Cable MP in Whitton to launch a campaign for a private members Bill in Parliament, due to be debated on 3rd March. The legislation is designed to give local council planning committees and communities greater discretions in relation to masts on sensitive sites, as near to schools. There is an online petition on www.shame.org.uk.

Vincent Cable MP said: "The campaign is not against mobile phones and recognises that base stations are necessary. But there are still unresolved questions about the long term health effects of high intensity beams. The Government's own Stewart Enquiry urged that schools and parents should be given a choice where masts were likely to affect schools. The local campaigners in Whitton and Hampton have put up a remarkably effective fight which has attracted national attention; their demands are modes and not at all extreme; and they deserve support."