THERE has been a lot of publicity in the press recently about the risks to health from using mobile phones.

Little or nothing has been said about the dangers from the dishes which send out the signals to these phones and which emit microwave radiation.

It is a fact that some authorities ban the installation of mobile phone dishes within 800 metres of a hospital or school and there has been an initiative recently to remove them from any schools which have rented space to a phone company for such installation.

At Headless Cross, we have eight such dishes erected on the water tower and at least two more in the pipeline.

I raised this at the recent Redditch County Contract meeting.

After investigation, Mr Williams, a county senior policy and review officer, wrote and told me it was a matter for the local council.

I then wrote to Mr Paddock in Redditch Council's Environmental Health Department, who tells me the council has no regulatory powers over the installation of these dishes.

So it seems that Severn Trent, which owns the tower, can erect as many as it likes.

The council does not have the equipment to check the levels of radiation and say it is up to Severn Trent to carry out tests.

Now it may be that this radiation may not affect anyone, but, on the other hand, it may affect everyone in the area.

I would suggest the truth lies somewhere between the two extremes and some people will suffer ill effects from it.

If you stand at the entry road to Vaynor First School and look towards the tower, you can clearly see the dishes pointed at the school at a distance of 300 yards or so.

Are we putting children at risk? After all, walls or windows are no protection against microwave radiation.

Jim Sullivan

Tennyson Road

Headless Cross