Top cop slammed in mast protest (From Western Telegraph)

Top cop slammed in mast protest

Dyfed-Powys police chief Terence Grange has been accused of putting the health of hundreds of children at risk by allowing a temporary tetramast to be placed on the top of Haverfordwest police HQ.

A furious local mother, who lives near the police station, said: "Thousands of items of food have been withdrawn from supermarket shelves, schools, hospitals and residential care homes because of the 'risk' from the food dye Sudan I.

"Yet, the chief constable is prepared to 'risk' the health of these children. It is diabolical. He should have said no to this mast."

Opponents are concerned that seven schools - Mount Airey, Fenton Community, Haverfordwest VC, Mary Immaculate, Ysgol Glan Cleddau, Redhill and Tasker Milward Schools - lie within close proximity to the station and could be affected by 'microwaves' coming from the mast.

An urgent meeting will be held today (Wednesday) in a bid to block the scheme.

The mother will join local councillors Peter Stock and David Bryan, opponents of the mast, at a meeting with the county council's head of development control, David Lawrence.

They will examine legal aspects, particularly a recent a court case where a London borough was ordered to pay residents 25% of the value of their homes following the erection of a mast.

The tetramast is part of a national airwave programme to improve communication for the emergency service.

Previous bids to place it at Hawthorn Rise telephone exchange, the police station and Uzmaston, were stopped after fierce opposition.

What has angered campaigners now is that no-one knew that 02 Airwave had again set its sights on the police station until Councillor David Bryan found out.

"I was told the company had withdrawn its appeal against refusal for a temporary mast at Uzmaston but that it was going ahead with a temporary mast for the police station," he said.

The police insist they are only 'providing' the building for the mast, as part of a contractual agreement with the company to install a national airwave programme.

"More than 100 police stations in the UK have tetramasts on them," added a spokesman. O2 Airwave says it needs no planning consent. All that is required is a license of notification, which has been submitted to the county council.

"There are no grounds to refuse an application for health reasons," said company spokesman.

"That has been reinforced many times by public inquiries and appeal decisions. Therefore we will complete the base station at the police headquarters."

But Cllr Peter Stock said: "It seems the company is trying to take the law into its own hands.

"The general public are not against improved communication. But not enough tests have been carried out with regard to the health impact of Tetra. This mast must be stopped."