Mast fight for Commons

8:27am Sunday 23rd December 2007

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VILLAGERS battling to get a mobile phone mast removed from a North Yorkshire village will have their case raised in Parliament.

Ryedale's Tory MP John Greenway has written to villagers in Sheriff Hutton telling them he will be speaking to the House of Commons in January about a controversial phone mast in the village.

Residents campaigning against the mast have welcomed Mr Greenway's intervention.

Catherine Botting, who lives near the mast, said: "Mr Greenway has told us he will raise our case for us in January and I am absolutely delighted. Since the mast was vandalised it seems to have made Orange more determined not to talk to us when all we want is to negotiate, so hopefully this might get things moving again."

The move is the latest twist in a long-running saga involving this mast.

In November, The Press reported that vandals had attacked and poured concrete into the workings of the 15ft mast.

Mrs Botting's husband, John, said at the time: "It looks as if it's been damaged beyond repair and as far as I'm concerned it's a situation where it means the mast is redundant.

"I don't want to condone it, but I'm happy."

Back in June, The Press reported that a group of 100 villagers had taken tents and banners to the mast.

At that point the mast, which had been there for well over a year, had not been switched on.

Villagers have mounted a fierce protest campaign calling for its removal for over a year now. They even pledged enough cash between them - some £60,000 - to have it removed.

Last year, officials from Ryedale District Council failed to lodge a protest within the allotted timescale - which meant Orange had the right to put it up anyway.

Villagers have objected to the mast on health grounds.

But Martin Grey, government and community relations manager for Orange, said an independent review had concluded there was no "convincing scientific evidence" that signals from mobile phone base stations caused adverse ill health effects.

He said the company still intended to connect power to the mast, in order to provide network coverage in the area.

No one from Orange was available to comment on Mr Greenway's intervention.