Cancer patient’s fear over mobile mast

04 March 2005

Matt Eley

A MOTHER who is recovering from breast cancer fears plans to install a mobile phone mast on a Queen's Crescent pub could harm her health.

Emma Looney, 27, has just finished a course of radiotherapy after finding a lump in her breast last year.

And the mother-of-one is worried that mobile phone giant Vodafone's bid to put a three-antennae mast on the roof of the Monkeychews pub could hinder her recovery.

Miss Looney lives in Athlone Street, Kentish Town, but regularly visits her mum Margaret Looney who lives in the Lenham block, next door to Monkeychews.

She said: "It was quite a shock when I found out I had breast cancer because there is no history of any cancer in the family.

"Everything has been going well with the treatment but hearing about the mobile phone mast is not the best news when the health risks are not clear."

She added she was also concerned about her three-year-old daughter Lauren.

"There is a playground which they use right next to the pub. It is not as if the mast would be on top of a tower block - it is level with bedroom windows."

Margaret Looney, 52, added: "My daughter stays here a lot of the time and I don't want her put at any more risk. This is very much a residential area and people are worried."

Jill Fraser, Lib Dem councillor for Haverstock ward, said scores of concerned residents had contacted her about the planned mast.

On Tuesday campaigners staged a protest and started a petition outside the pub.

She said: "I have had lots of feedback and people are very much against this. We have all got mobile phones and have good reception so why do we need more masts?

"Nobody will tell us the truth about the health risks and if it is safe or not. Until they do we have to go on the grounds that it is unsafe."

Pub managers stand to make thousands of pounds a year from renting out the roof to house the mobile phone mast.

Emma Wright, of Queen's Crescent, added: "We urge the owners of this pub, which on its website proclaims to be about 'real people, real music, real food', to have real concern for their neighbours and change their minds about this application."

A spokeswoman for Camden Council said it was unable to turn down phone mast applications on grounds of health concerns.

The managers of Monkeychews were unavailable for comment.

matt.eley@hamhigh.co.uk