VIDEO NEWS: Bad-tempered phone mast protest ends

2:12pm Wednesday 16th August 2006

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AN ANGRY protest against a mobile phone mast is over.

Demonstrators have drifted away now that workmen have secured and left the site.

As well as barricading the area with metal barriers, the workmen also placed barriers on top - to prevent people climbing over.

See video footage of the angry protest. Click here

The site, which is on the corner of St Paul's Wood Hill and Beddington Road in St Paul's Cray, was the scene of confrontation this morning.

Up to 15 protesters gathered when they saw contractors for T-Mobile starting work around 7am.

As the workmen started putting up the barricades, tempers rose.

A number of protesters attempted to pull the barriers down whilst security guards fought to keep them up.

Police were called in to restore order.

The demonstrators are claiming T-Mobile has broken an agreement about when the work would start.

They say a meeting was due to be held tonight between them and police before any work began.

Mother-of-three Sam Anderson, 35, said: "It is just typical. They'll do anything to get this thing up. They have stabbed us in the back.

"You're trying to do it the right way by going to these meetings and then they come in here at 7am.

"The police assured me that nothing would happen before we had a meeting."

The Thorndon Close resident added: "We legally do not know what we can and cannot do.

"If we get arrested then it is not our fault because we have not been advised.

"It is such a huge battle to fight but you cannot not do it."

Thirty-seven-year-old Claire Burton said: "Everything they do is underhand.

"They do not go about things the right way."

The St Paul's Wood Hill resident added: "When we try and do things the right way it just does nothing."

Campaigners, who say they are worried about the health effects of the mast, have been fighting for six months to stop it being erected.

Last month, an attempt to start work on the mast also turned nasty when campaigners argued with security guards brought in to keep them away.

News Shopper is in the process of getting comment from T-Mobile.