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Plea to tear down mast
Aug 9 2004
By Poppy Brady, Evening Mail
Mobile phone mast protesters want to know why a city mast is still broadcasting signals after a Government inspector threw out a planning appeal.
Campaigners were delighted when the Airwave O2 mast in Baltimore Road, Great Barr, lost its appeal for planning permission, but are furious the Tetra mast is still operating.
Now Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood is calling for council enforcement officers to dismantle the mast, which is more than 15m high.
Campaigner Rob Capella, who is chairman of governors at nearby Dorrington Primary School in Dorrington Road, said: "We're so pleased that they've lost this appeal but we just hope that it will now be pulled down.
"We will push the council to remove it as soon as possible."
But a city council spokesman said Airwave O2 had lodged another planning application on the same day as the appeal was rejected.
He said: "If we hadn't received this we would certainly be looking at serving an enforcement notice on them. We now have to look at the new application before considering further action."
Birmingham MPs who have united as the All Party Mobile Group are calling for a radical overhaul of the planning and siting of phone masts.
They are being supported by leading city campaigner Eileen O'Connor, who claims there are strong links between masts and a range of health problems from sleep disorders and headaches to clusters of cancer cases.
In March, Baltimore Road residents teamed up with other members of BRAM (Birmingham Residents Against Masts) to stage a 12-hour protest over the mast.
