Fears over phone mast on the corner

STRONG support for a new mobile phone mast in Seaford did not stop members of the town council from recommending that the plan be thrown out.

The proposed Orange Personal Communications mast would be eight metres tall and be placed at the junction of Belgrave Road and Carlton Road.

At a meeting last week, the council's planning committee rejected it by a narrow vote of five in favour and five against, with the chairman's casting vote overruling the supporters.

However, backing for the scheme was strong. Cllr Bob Gower said: 'We have to accept that we all use mobile phones and that this mast must go somewhere.

'It would be wasting people's time to refuse this application and let it go to appeal, because as we have learned from past experience, the planning inspector will almost certainly give permission.'

Cllr Julian Peterson said mobile phone masts were a vital part of the future. 'If history had been the other way around and mobile phones had come first, I think we'd find the anti-mast people saying we couldn't possibly put telephone poles all over the place with all those wires sticking out.'

He added: 'This is progress, it is the future. If all it takes for these vital tools to work is the occasional mast, we should definitely approve them.'

Cllr Les Whittle was firmly against placing masts in a residential area.

He said: 'Experts tell us that there are health risks involved with these things. It would be foolish to ignore them completely. I'm not satisfied that this mast should go there, that we should impose it on the local residents or that it's really necessary.'

Cllr Eddie Collict added: 'That mast they have put at the back of Cradle Hill industrial estate is absolutely awful. It's so obnoxious that it makes me very wary of supporting anything like it.'

Members' objections will be passed to the district council's planning committee, which will make the final decision. If permission is refused, Orange will have the right to appeal.