New Hanworth Road Threat

7.20.00am GMT Mon 22nd Nov 2004

Only a few weeks after residents on Hanworth road won their long and bitter battle to replace an (O2) mobile phone mast with a smaller version, Vodaphone have come forward with a new proposal for a 3G mast on the same site.

Vincent cable MP has contacted the company and asked them to reconsider the matter and to seek other sites and said: "this is unbelievably insensitive. An earlier 3G mast had to be removed by O2 after strenuous protests by residents, supported by councillors and myself, and after it was found to have been erected illegally. The mast was extremely ugly and was a few feet from the bedroom windows of local residents. Now a rival company proposes to repeat the experience instead of looking for alternative sites. There is a large industrial estate two hundred yards away where there would unlikely to be planning or other objections. It isn't clear whether Vodaphone is motivated by laziness or bloody mindedness; but there is another battle ahead."