The latest: Click here to read Stephen Hammond's letter to Orange. (A pdf download.)

A video of the London Tonight piece has surfaced on You Tube. Click here to see it. 

Wimbledon Park Community say “NO” again to new plans for mobile phone mast

Community spirit was once again unleashed in Wimbledon Park on Friday 6th October when an unprecedented turnout of 130+ residents joined a ‘standing room only’ meeting with Orange at Christ The King Church hall to discuss another mobile mast proposal for Wimbledon Park. Following an entrée from the Orange representative, a structured Q & A session was held, chaired by Stephen Hammond MP. Though striving for an orderly exchange, latent discontent in the room soon came to the fore as residents’ questions successively built an undeniably strong counter-argument. Residents from a cross-section of the community contested the grounds for any more masts in the area period, especially above a flat over Estella wine bar on Arthur Road. What came back frankly was a string of tenuous justifications on the part of the Orange representative, albeit bravely fronting a Public Meeting. In fact Orange looked poised to cancel after a preliminary gathering with Stephen Hammond and local Councillors at a local resident’s house, for fear of over-heated residents turning it into a free-for-all.

It was upheld by residents that the fundamental need for better ‘3G’ coverage in Wimbledon Park rests on a dubious rationale for the mast, as Orange customers with 3G handsets could visibly demonstrate in the meeting (holding up phones with full signal coverage). Secondly the notion of placing a new mast on top of a residential flat above Estella clearly contradicts previous claims by Orange that Beaumont House was the perfect mast location, all other buildings along Arthur Road discounted on the grounds of unsuitable topology and also due to being residential.

It is now clear why Orange sought to progress this proposal for 169 Arthur Road via less overt communication, i.e. an innocuous notice on an Arthur Road lamppost in August, two months ago. Fortunately, this was spotted and sparked a chain of communication in the public arena. Such tactics symbolise Orange’s limited comprehension of the term ‘public consultation’ and suitable consultative media. Even the flat owner who lives above Estella received no direct notification from Orange or the Landlord outlining the proposal for two Macrocell masts with antennae and base station. That kind of deliberate omission can’t be ethical and it certainly undermines Orange’s customer friendly corporate image.

Further to ongoing talks with Orange, residents face two options now: four street level masts placed as lamp-post type structures in Arthur Road, Home Park Road, Melrose Avenue and Elsenham Street, or the 2 roof-top masts above Estella wine bar. The ideal solution for residents would be for Orange to add to an existing ‘3’ mast in Wimbledon Park discounting the need for a new site (which could in turn be ‘added to’ with additional masts in the future). It seems ludicrous to agree to the proposal per se without any proven technical evidence to support a need for additional mast equipment in the area.

Health concerns over mobile phone technology are not new, but are repeatedly denounced by mobile phone providers and official UK bodies alike. Mobile base stations have been linked to cancer clusters, and studies are gathering evidence for incidence of both adult brain cancer and childhood leukaemia. At the other end of the spectrum are cases of ‘electro-sensitivity’ with symptoms such as memory loss, headaches and dizziness recorded around mast sites. But studies showing any causal associations are categorically disregarded, statistics skewed to render findings less serious, or even worse, official studies set up with flawed design parameters guaranteed to skew or bias results in the first place. Because of this disregard for meaningful scientific evidence, residents in public meetings like the one at Christ the King, meet open scepticism. Risk is laughed off with a smirk so that even the more technical amongst us are left feeling naïve and stupid. However the growing literature from academic communities outside this technical cynicism in the UK testifies to a rather worrying spectacle. Mobile phone technology is potentially the ‘new tobacco’, it will just take a decade or two for the evidence to be taken seriously as mounting studies become difficult to denounce by official UK bodies (whose funding makes for interesting reading).

If the health considerations are not enough, then the more commercial amongst us will take note of the threat to property values, the aesthetic taint on a community skyline having a tangible depreciative effect on house valuations and shaping negative perceptions on the part of potential home buyers looking to move to Wimbledon Park. (See ‘Worth Making a Protest’, Sunday Times, 12 March 2006.)

This is not a minority cause, it has galvanised the community in Wimbledon Park on one level or another. The repeated attempts by Orange to inflict more mobile equipment in our village demonstrate a purely commercial drive and blatant disregard for public sentiment. Let’s stop this proposal in its tracks. If the Council is inadequately armed to halt plans due to Merton’s lax policy (Wandsworth Council’s planning department seems to have more teeth), then it is down to the likes of us.

The www.wimbledonpark.com website is a good starting point for acquainting oneself with the issues, as is the mast sanity website http://www.mastsanity.org /. But to ensure your voice is counted, you need to write to the following people: Jacqueline Sibanda /Peter Slevin, Community Liaison, Orange, The Royals, 55 Victoria Road, Acton, NW10 6ND or email jacque.sibanda@orange.co.uk . Write to your Councillors: Oonagh Moulton, Tariq Ahmad and Stephen Kerin at Merton Council, Civic Centre, London Road, Morden SM4 5DX; or email them Tariq.Ahmad@merton.gov.uk ; Stephen.Kerin@merton.gov.uk ; Oonagh.Moulton@merton.gov.uk . Write to the Landlord of 169 Arthur Road who is planning to position a mast on his property: Bernard Slade. Address to be found by emailing the campaign organiser: wpagainstorange@blueyonder.co.uk .   And write to your local MP Stephen Hammond, House of Commons, London SW1A OAA  or email hammonds@parliament.uk



Wendy Westmore Oct 2006
 

Orange Phone Mast on top of Estella’s Wine Bar, 169 Arthur Rd.

For more information on this issue: click here for a pdf. 

For the target area map click here.

Download the posters here.

The future is not looking bright for Wimbledon Park residents this month, after a small sign wrapped around a lamp post which looked like a “Lost Cat’ notice turned out to be yet another proposal by French mobile phone giant Orange for a mast on top of homes in Arthur Rd.

Seven alternative sites were suggested by Stephen Hammond MP back in March but all were rejected.  At the time Orange were pushing for a mast on Beaumont House and actually said that all other buildings on Arthur Rd were not high enough for the mast to be effective and were too residential. Now they are??

This is Orange’s THIRD attempt in the last two years to erect a phone mast in the heart of a densely populated family area, and very near to Buffer Bear Nursery School.  Locals are stunned that all of their efforts in trying to convince Orange that this mast is not wanted or needed here seem to count for nothing. Many people in the community who are on the Orange network report a perfectly good signal. There are 34 masts in the local area already, do we REALLY need another one?

So why is Orange determined to have this mast in Wimbledon Park? We have just received a map from Orange s

howing the ‘target area’ that they are trying to cover.  (See Map of Target Area) One third of it is in Wandsworth.  They seem to have a ‘not aquired’ star on Heythorp Street in the Grid, which is in Wandsworth.  It is also obvious from the map that the Network Rail Sidings to the right of the Target Area would be ideal siting for a new mast.  We are trying to establish from Orange why this has not been proposed as a site so far.

Orange are clearly trying to site a mast in Merton that is intended to supply the residents of Wandsworth too. A possible reason why they have failed to get a mast up in Heythorp St so far, is that the Borough of Wandsworth has a much stricter policy on phone masts than Merton, especially in terms of visual impact on the area. Orange would have to go through a lengthy and expensive period of consultation, and then probable rejection. However Merton residents are still falling foul of a legal loophole which states that any mast below 15 metres in height does not need any planning permis

sion at all.  Our Borough is a walkover   in comparison. At this moment  Stephen Hammond is looking into producing a Private Members Bill to try to get this careless and outdated planning law changed as soon as possible.

But until it is, it looks like Wimbledon Park residents will have to keep fighting the same battle with Orange until one side gives in.  Rest assured Orange, it will not be the Wimbledon Park residents!!

If you would like to join the campaign then please email wpagainstorange@blueyonder.co.uk   or
wimbledonparkagainstorange@hotmail.co.uk

STOP PRESS!!  A PUBLIC MEETING WITH ORANGE HAS BEEN SET UP for FRIDAY 6TH  OCTOBER at 7pm. 

St.Austin’s Hall, Church of Christ the King in The Crescent off Arthur Rd.  

It is essential that as many people as possible turn up to show Orange our strength in numbers.  PUT THIS DATE IN YOUR DIARY NOW!!

For more information on this issue: click here for a pdf. 

For the target area map click here.

Download the posters here.