The box and the mast on the roof of the neighbours house

Why Take The Risk?

A group of La Marina residents have been left fearing for their health after a large mobile phone mast was erected on a neighbour’s house. Parque Manzanares in La Marina is a quiet, residential area. Three weeks ago, men in unmarked vans arrived at a house on the Parque and started to unload electrical equipment. Neighbours Jane and Arthur Arnold assumed that it was a TV satellite company erecting a satellite dish. However when Arthur (who worked for BT for many years) saw what equipment was being unloaded, he knew that it wasn’t for any satellite dish.

Arthur told Round Town News; “The equipment was industrial and it was the sort of equipment that I used to fit for BT.” The couple realised that it was for a mobile phone mast and when they enquired with neighbours whether they knew about it, one Spanish resident told them that she had received a letter asking her to put one on the top of her house, but had refused. The mobile phone company had apparently offered her 8,000€ per year to rent her roof space and promised a contract of between 15-25 years.

Licence

After a brief investigation, it appeared that none of the other full time residents were aware of the mast and so Arthur and another neighbour went down to San Fulgencio Town Hall’s technical department to see if they had issued a licence for the mast. They confirmed that they had been presented with plans to install a phone mast and according to Arthur, they said the plans had been passed. The man also apparently said to Arthur that there was nothing that they could do about it.

Arthur told Round Town News; “At no time were any residents in Parque Manzanares asked what they think about erecting a phone mast in their residential area.” He continued; “Why can’t they put it in the campo, which is nowhere near people’s homes?” On discovering this, a Spanish neighbour, who uses his house as a holiday home, approached the San Fulgencio Mayor Trinny Martinez, who told him that she knew nothing of the mast. As a result, the Spaniard phoned the police, who in turn called in a technician and the work to erect the mast was stopped immediately.

Support

The Arnolds, along with their neighbours, who are a mixture of nationalities, last week raised a petition to officially protest against the mast and so far they have obtained nearly 300 signatures. The petition was presented to the Town Hall on Wednesday but due to the fact that the residents do not belong to an official community, it is more difficult for them to officially protest against the mast. They have been advised to involve other communities on La Marina Urbanisation and to get their support and then they can re-submit the petition at a later date.

Arthur concluded; “We will take the petition to Valencia as well if necessary. If they don’t take us seriously, we will make a big song and dance about it. There are kids living here and it is a fact that these masts have been linked to tumours, migraines and allergies. No-one can prove it, I know, but no-one can disprove it either, so why take the risk?” Jane added.

“We do not want it here, but if it’s allowed, it will set a precedent and they will be popping up all over the place and in this current economic climate, people won’t want to turn away that kind of money.”  The Town Hall confirmed to RTN that they were aware of the problem and are dealing with the complaint.

Electromagnetic Radiation

A report was published recently that says that there is, ‘No general risk to health of people living near mobile phone mast base stations’. It says the ‘vague symptoms’ reported by some members of the public are more likely caused by ‘anxiety’ over being near to phone masts. Even directly under a phone mast, the power of electromagnetic fields would be much lower than when an individual was using a mobile handset.

However, the report does suggest that precautionary measures should be made in relation to children. It says that there is no scientific evidence that electromagnetic radiation from masts has an adverse effect on children, but as a precaution any masts should not be set up close to where children reside or go to school.