AROUND 200 parents and children flocked to a meeting to promote controversial plans to build 13 new mobile phone masts throughout south Farnham. The public consultation meeting had been organised by Orange to try to allay fears about the new masts which would cover Compton, Bourne, Lower Bourne, Shortheath and Boundstone. Protesters have been particularly angered by Orange's proposal to build a mast opposite Bourne Infants' School in Frensham Road. Campaigners say that until the safety of the radiation emitted from the masts is assured, they should not be built next to schools. There is also opposition to the positioning of masts within residential areas. Hundreds of placard waving parents, children and residents gathered outside the Tuesday meeting as part of an organised protest by Bourne School Mast Action Group. The conference room hired by Orange in the Bush House Hotel struggled to cope as around 200 protesters filed into the room. Niki Hearnshaw, campaign co-ordinator, said: "We were delighted with the number of people who came to show their support at such short notice and Orange will now know the strength of feeling in the community that there is. "This whole issue basically boils down to whether they can prove that it is safe for a mast to be placed next to a school. Despite everything they say, until that can be proven our children should not be used as experimental guinea pigs." Orange representative Tom Watson tried to answer some of the concerns in an occasionally heated meeting but said that they had run out of options for the area. Mr Watson said: "We recognise that Farnham is a special area and it is a particularly beautiful part of the world which needs to be dealt with sensitively. "The problem we have is that we have a requirement to provide a certain level of service which at the moment we simply can't do. "There's no evidence to say that there's any danger at all. It's no different to the many things we already have which use the same signal such as cordless phones." Mr Watson said the preferred option for Orange would be to be able to use the existing NTL mast in Waverley Lane but it would require an agreement between Surrey County Council and NTL over which they have no power. One protester warned the Orange representatives that they would put up a vociferous fight against the proposals. The woman said: "We are rational people and the concerns we have are entirely legitimate. "Until we know this is safe for our children we are not willing to simply take a risk and hope for the best. "The number of people here shows how strongly people feel about this and you can be sure that we will fight these plans every inch of the way." The meeting also attracted a lone protest by Guy Bach who accused the opponents of being hypocritical. He stood outside the meeting room with a bucket and invited campaigners to hand over their mobile phones if they were opposed to mobile phone masts. Mr Bach from Churt said: "People seem quite happy to poach signals for their mobiles from other people's masts but when it is the other way round the signal masts suddenly become dangerous. "NIMBYism is out of control and I think with a lot of people it has become a cult."
