Relief as mast plan withdrawn

A MOBILE phone mast proposal, which enraged people in a Huntingdonshire village, has been withdrawn, but the fight to oppose the plans continues. T-Mobile decided to withdraw the application for a 20-metre mast in Great Paxton after a report in The Hunts

A MOBILE phone mast proposal, which enraged people in a Huntingdonshire village, has been withdrawn, but the fight to oppose the plans continues.

T-Mobile decided to withdraw the application for a 20-metre mast in Great Paxton after a report in The Hunts Post, intervention by Huntingdon MP, Jonathan Djanogly and protest leaflets delivered to every home in the village.

Protesters mounted a fierce campaign against the construction, which would have been height of five double-decker buses.

Nearby residents said they had been "overlooked" when letters about the proposals were sent out by Huntingdonshire District Council.

Last week Barrie Taylor-Smith, spokesman for T-Mobile, said the application had been withdrawn but another application would be submitted on farmland further away from homes. He said the new mast would have to be higher.

Mother-of-three Fleur Bateman, whose home, where she runs a childminding business and a B&B, would have been nearest to the mast, said: "We are absolutely delighted. I haven't had a decent night's sleep for weeks with this hanging over us. Now we can just get on with our everyday lives. The parents of the children I mind had said they would remove them if the mast had gone up.