Ding-dong at church averted

The furore at St Mary’s Parish Church erupted after an offer was made by mobile network providers 02 and Vodafone to host a shared antenna within the church tower.

The church would have received at least £6,000 a year in rent but the place of worship’s bellringers were worried over potential health risks.

They had wanted any decision to be delayed until a new vicar is chosen for the parish following the departure of Rev Christopher Betson.

But after the church fabric committee consulted with residents, the proposal for the mast in the  tower has been dropped.

A statement from the Parochial Church Council (PCC) said that the study was complete apart from a structural engineer’s report and propagation testing to check if the louvres (panels) of the bell chamber were of a density suitable for the required signal strength of the mast.

The council said the two network providers had asked the council to give a firm commitment to the project, subject to the outcome of these tests.

The statement added: “Only then would the consortium agree to fund these two important and costly pieces of work, to finally determine the structural integrity of the bell chamber.

“As the PCC are unable to give this commitment, on advice from the Fabric Committee, the project has been abandoned.”

The bell-ringing team, many of whom are young people, were concerned because the World Health Organisation (WHO) has claimed that radio frequency electromagnetic fields are possibly carcinogenic and that the NHS is looking into the long-term safety of mobile telephone usage. 

The ringers wanted a decision delayed until further research by the WHO is finalised.

Ven Steve Wilcockson, Archdeacon of Doncaster, said in a letter to bellringing team member Col Gordon Whitehead that he believed there were “ethical issues” relating to the nature of material that may have been transmitted by any telecoms mast, which the church would not want to be linked to.