Sir, If there are risks and we think that maybe there are then the people who are going to be most affected are children, and the younger the children, the greater the danger. (Sir William Stewart, who chaired the panel report of Independent Experts (Stewart Report, 2000) and one from the National Radiological Protection Board (2005). The brewery Punchtaverns have made a deal with T-mobile to put up numerous phone masts on pubs.

Today it is the Chester Arms, East Oxford and the Marlborough Tavern, Grandpont that are under threat tomorrow, who knows, it may be your local. The phone companies massage the results of reports to suggest that there are no health concerns to the public.

But the NRBR report states: While the balance of evidence to date suggests that exposure to RF emissions below the national guidelines do not cause adverse health effects to the general population It is simply not possible to say that there are no potential effects on the human population.

They argue that a precautionary approach to the use of mobile phone technologies should continue to be adopted:

  • Masts should not be sited within 200 metres of schools.
  • Full planning permission should be necessary for phone masts even those under 15m. The two masts at East Oxford and Grandpont are both within 100 yards of primary schools. Popular children's playgrounds are nearby. Children spend even longer at home or sleeping in their own beds than they do in schools. Punchtaverns stand to gain a relatively small annual rent for each mast at the cost of considerable anxiety, and possible health risks of the local community that they supposedly want to serve.

Denise Cullington, Oxford