application to build mobile phone mast near our house...advice needed.

[helsi]

we have had a thing through the door rom our parish council to say that Vodaphone are trying to get planning permission for a 40ft mobile phone mast to be built at the top of the hill behind our house. The parish council rejected the propsition on behalf of the village residents on the grounds of:
safety
health impact
impact to view/environment
traffic impact
overall local resident disapproval of the proposal

vodaphone have gone ahead and progressed its application anyway.

we have therefore been given details of who to write to as individual residents to object about it.

My question is - do letters of objections etc actually so any good in these kind of matters? Are we actually listened to? is it worth me writing/emailing/phoning our objections through?

I have written a cracking letter but will it be worth it?

It is worth it but the grounds for objection are very clearly stipulated, a view for example is not protected. All written(including email) objections will be put on the file

Do some research if you wish to pursue it by seeing if you can find out how ohter areas have successfully objected

Is the local mp likely to support residents' objections

Yes the MP is on our side.

I don't have much time for much research as objections have to be in before 3rd March.

Yes, Helsi send your letter & start encouraging everyone you can think of to send one too. Show them your letter, or write out a very brief objection letter & tell them to copy it. A mast was being planned near ds's nursery and we all kicked up a real stink. One of the mum's printed out a letter and we just had to top & tail it adding in our own address & then she collected them and sent them off. We also posted letters through local residents letterboxes and suggested they might like to do the same. It must have worked as to this day the mast has not gone up & that was nearly 4 years ago now.

There was an application to put one up near us recently. A few local residents got up petitions to object and it was refused permission. It would have been on one of the highest points in the town and the visual impact was definitely given as one of the reasons for refusing

Message withdrawn

Can we send a lot of letters in one envelope do you think - even though most of them are the same words as some residents have just used the suggested template letter or should we all send them individually?

Yes helsi it does do good when all residents club toghether and fire off individual letters, We won our case when O2 tried to put a mobile mast on top of our local church where ds went to playgroup, it took about 18m for the process to end but it was hassle free on my part after I had written my letter as our local MP took it up. Good luck

The mast they were going to put up in our street has been refused - yay! Lots of letters definitely helped.

My letter has gone off to the council but there is a meeting in the village church tonight about it. we are going just to see what else we can do. I am so opposed to this I really don't want it 300 metres from my home.

The Government tell us there are no known health risks but several studies from around the world give the opposite point of view.
I live quite near the proposed site with my young family and I don't want to risk the government being wrong and us all suffering in the future.

Vodafone have lloked at putting a mast in another site in the village - near the primary school and a private day nursery but decided against it because of the public outcry. The nursery only has a dozen or so children throughout the day but there is plenty more than that living around the proposed site.

Added to health fears, estate agents estimate that it could reduce the value of house by as much as 25%.

A mast near my daughters nursery was refused, thanks to all the letters and support against the proposal from the local people.

UPDATE - we (the residents and locals) attended a parish council meeting and agreed to bombard the planning dept with objection letters on Monday. One of the residents had arranged for 2 big local newspapers and the local TGV station to attend a protest on Wednesday.

I got a call wednesday am from the rsident to say that the planning application had been withdrawn!! How great is that Hoorah!!

well done!