Residents enraged over planned phone antennae

FURIOUS residents in Mallow’s sprawling southside have called on O2 not to go ahead with the provision of mobile telephone antennae on a chimney at the local Micam plant.

They told company officials at a pubic meeting in the town that they are seriously concerned about risks to public health from having the antennae located in a residential area.

The meeting was called by the Dromore Drive-Canon Corbett Place Residents’ Association, which is totally opposed to the location of the antenna in such a heavily populated area.

Margaret McCarthy, secretary, said residents were shocked when they heard of the installation, especially with so many housing estates in the immediate vicinity.

They were very worried about the potential health implications.

Speakers from the floor of the public meeting accused Q2 of not consulting with the local people before going ahead with its plans and claimed the company’s actions would greatly devalue their property.

They also criticised Micam for not being represented at the meeting.

O2 said it is installing the antennae at the Micam plant following local demand for improved quality of mobile phone coverage in the vicinity of Mallow.

It said it is obliged under the terms of its operating licence from ComReg to provide a high quality mobile phone service to communities all over Ireland.

By constructing these antennae, it is meeting the terms of that licence, it said.

O2 officials denied it had acted secretively on the issue and insisted that it had followed regulations to the letter of the law.

Professor Philip Walton, NUI Galway, assured residents that the radiation levels from such antennae are usually thousands of times below internationally accepted levels.

But the residents maintained there is no acceptable level of radiation.

Mayor of Mallow Cllr Seán Sherlock said the potential health risks are still not known and the residents reserved the right not to have such antennae in their midst.