PLANS to put a mobile phone mast just 50 yards from a nursery school have angered parents and nearby residents.

The 50ft mast is to be erected on Stratford Road, Banbury, next to Drayton School.

Telecommunications giant O2 said there were no alternative sites.

The company was responding to a demonstration on Saturday when more than 80 campaigners, including Banbury MP Tony Baldry and local councillors, turned out to protest against the installation.

Demo organiser Mary Jenvey said: "This is just the beginning. As a community we will do everything we can to stop the mast being sited here.

"If it goes ahead we will look to our rights in the Electronic Communication Code 17 to apply for the removal of the mast."

She said: "O2 are supposed to be consulting the public on this, but have already laid power cables to the site.

"Why do they bother to consult if they ignore community views?"

She added: "The governors at Drayton School have opposed this location as well as the Drayton Playgroup who use the nursery building.

Mr Baldry told the protest: "People are becoming hacked off with phone masts in unsuitable places.

"Mobile phone companies could avoid bad publicity by putting masts on more considerate sites such as industrial estates.

"There are alternatives to putting masts next to nursery schools."

Banbury mayor John Donaldson said: "Mobile telephones are becoming more and more advanced but the technology is not extending to masts. In this day and age, telecommunication companies should be able to find ways of transmitting signals without siting masts near schools."

Councillor Nicholas Turner, said: "I spent three hours with the phone company's planners and they promised to do tests on radio wave levels and let me have the results. But I have heard nothing. They just seem to be going ahead with installing the mast."

Parent Lesley Blake, whose two sons Cameron, three, and Daniel, six, dressed as Batman for the protest, said: "To put a mast only 50 yards from a nursery school is not right. We are still not fully aware of the effects of mobile phone masts, and it surely cannot be right to put one so close to young children. If it goes there, the playgroup might have to close."

Angela Johnson, community liaison manager for O2, said: "We have tried to work with residents to find an alternative site, but nowhere else will work for us on a radio basis.

"We put masts on schools and hospitals because the Health Protection Agency says there are no health risks.

"Masts are low-powered transmitters and give off less emissions than a TV set or a taxi driver's radio.

"Phone masts are responsible for less than two per cent of the radio frequency that is around us all the time."

She added: "There is a silent majority of people who want their mobile phones to work properly."

  • Less than half-a-mile from the Drayton site, another phone mast row is brewing.

T-Mobile is consulting with residents over a mast being sited on Ruscote Avenue.

Cllr Jan Justice is opposed to this and is hoping to get them to put in an improved application.

The proposed mast in Ruscote Avenue is in a residential area and less than 20 yards from the nearest front door.