The One2One Phone Masts Dispute at Burton Green At the centre of Burton Green is a well known landmark, visible for miles around, the Water Tower. There are more view of the Water Tower on the page About Burton Green. During 2000, the Water Tower was at the centre of a controversial proposal to use it as a platform for mobile phone masts. The items below show some stages in the development of the issue at Burton Green, and are presented as they first appeared on this website. Some of the more emotive commentary, and a large number of links to other websites, have been removed...

19th May 2000 - Residents First Notice of Impending Action A lady who had been taking her dog for an early morning walk stopped me in Cromwell Lane to say that contractors would be arriving later that morning to erect phone masts on the water tower. She said that they had only discovered this the previous evening, and would be trying to deny the contractors access to the tower.

20th May 2000 - Reports in Coventry Telegraph, and the following weekend, in The Kenilworth Weekly News

There has been a recent proposal to erect radio transmission beacons on top of the water tower. Residents say that plans had been hatched in secret and without the knowledge of most local residents, until the day before contractors were due to arrive to erect the masts. Residents living near the water tower issued a newsletter, and are endeavouring to have the masts resited on pylons near the sub-station in Hodgetts Lane, or on the existing mast at the Cable and Wireless site.

Meeting at Village Hall, Thursday 22 June 2000 A very well attended meeting was held at the village hall on Thursday night. What surpised me was how Orange had managed to instal their equipment at the sub-station, almost unnoticed, and without causing a great deal of opposition, but how One-2-One seemed intent on creating a storm of PR damage. The company had refused to send a repesentative to this meeting. There was incomprehension why the sub-station could not be used for this application too. Another nearby site, on Cable & Wireless Property, was also seen as being preferable. Action was now centering on approaching Severn Trent, owners of the tower.

Front Page Article in Kenilworth Weekly News, 23rd June 2000 The threat to erect a mobile phone mast on the Severn Trent water tower at Burton Green was the front page article in the Kenilworth Weekly News.

Wednesday 28th June 2000 I received the following message from Karen and Pete Goode at 219: Severn Trent today have stated no work will go on at the tower untill One-2-One have explored all other possible sites, and that should they need to come back to the tower, they will only do so following consultation with the residents. It would appear we may have won round one but the fight continues..... untill they agree to no masts at all. There is a news letter on the notice board at the front of my house detailing the latest info.

	Burton Green on Central News at Six 29th June 2000 Controversial proposals to erect mobile phone masts on the Severn Trent water tower in the centre of Burton Green were featured on regional TV news on Thursday, 29th June. The report was filmed in the village by Karen Marshall, a reporter from Carlton TV.
	Several local residents were interviewed, to obtain their views about this proposal. Residents have been unanimously opposed to the proposals.
The simulated image shown at the right had been produced by Carlton, to show the effect of the antenna.
	John Archer, Warwickshire planning officer, explained that the council had no powers to oppose such proposals.
A spokesman for the mobile phone industry, Michael Dolan, was interviewed and began by stating that the mobile phone companies were committed to openness and transparancy, though the mobile phone company involved in the dispute refused to be interviewed.

The phone company have now settled for siting their equipment on the tower at the sub-station in Hodgett's Lane. "Absolutely Safe"