28th Apr 2009

Take Down the Mast

The Green Party oppose the inappropriate placing of mobile phone masts. We fully support the parent's campaign against the new mobile mast on Railway Street in Gillingham.

All the phone companies have tried to get a mast in there close to the station and we are sure they are only trying to get page serving bandwidths to train passengers passing through our town. So this is, likely, not a service for the people of Gillingham, but a risk to their children, all in the pursuit of money. Let us not forget the governments own guidelines say that masts should not be put near schools and that children should have limited exposure to mobile phone radiation. This is also an addition to the long list of anti-democratic acts in Medway. The mast was opposed by the council but by appealing to the Planning Inspectorate, an unelected government panel, Vodaphone managed to get granted permission. The Inspectorate knows nothing of Medway, they don't live or work here and we have no representation with them. This is big centralised government working for business and not for the people who elected them.