Transmitter plan sparks neighbour’s ‘over my dead body’ warning

Tower of trouble: (from left) campaigners Donald Berman, Deborah Laing, John Horsley from QS4, Lindsay Smith and church warden Matthew Power

A MOTHER-OF-FIVE has warned a Highgate church: install a mobile phone transmitter in your spire over my dead body.
On Saturday, Deborah Laing told Father Andrew Meldrum, vicar of St Anne’s Church in Highgate West Hill, that he faces a bitter fight if plans by mobile phone firm T-Mobile go ahead.
She was one of a dozen concerned residents who met church officials and John Horsley, a project manager from QS4, the company appointed by church bosses to handle the application.
Fr Meldrum is consulting residents on the plans, which could bring in an estimated £10,000 a year for the Grade II-listed church built in 1852.
The landmark sandstone church is in the middle of £350,000 roof renovation work.
But Ms Laing, of Langbourne Avenue, told the New Journal she hoped the church would listen to residents’ objections to the transmitter.
She said: “It is a breach of my human rights, and it will go up over my dead body.”
Resident Donald Berman, who lives next door to the church and whose son’s bedroom is just 15 feet from the spire, fears the proposal poses a serious danger to his family’s health.
He said: “I am opposed to it 150 per cent. We simply do not have enough evidence that these telephone masts are safe.”
His son Alex, a 16-year-old pupil at Highgate School, added: “I am worried because we don’t have the full statistics on it. So how can we make a judgement? If you look up radiowaves on the internet you see a lot of evidence against it.”
Lindsay Smith, also from Highgate West Hill, said: “I have done some work in the telecoms area and the evidence is contradictory. It is not clear cut one way or another. But I would not want a mast so close to my children’s bedrooms.”
Mr Horsley said T Mobile would be prepared to conduct a study into the likely effects of the proposed base station antennae on Mr Berman’s house.
He added: “I have to be honest: I do not believe there is a problem but, if it was my son, I would also be asking for a detailed study.”
Fr Meldrum has promised the church will consider all views before it makes a decision on the application in September. He said: “We have to consider things that might benefit the community. I know one or two people have strong feelings that we will take into account, but I have spoken to a number of people in Swain’s Lane and they are supportive.”
Fr Meldrum said the decision would not be influenced by the cash windfall the transmitter would bring the church.
He added: “We have deliberately decided to set aside any issue regarding the money. It is absolutely not about money.
“From recent events in London, we have seen how important mobile phones are in helping people keep in touch with each other. There is also the aesthetic argument – if we have one high aerial here it will prevent the need for three or four lower aerials on the street.”
John Thorpe, chief bell ringer at the church, said: “From what I have seen on the national and international guidelines, I think the health side is fine.
“If people want to use a mobile phone everywhere they go then they should be prepared to accept these masts need to be put up to give them coverage.”