REGARDING to the proposed installation of mobile phone antennae and microwave fishes in the tower of St Leonard's Church, Padiham, it is a known fact that an area around the installation would be subjected to a permanent concentration of low frequency microwaves, the effect of which are increased by the pulsation of the field.

Naturally, the 'experts,' quoted by the mobile phone company, say there would be no adverse health effects on people living nearby.

Clearly, there is at least some risk. Otherwise, why the need for ongoing research and the advice in the Stewart Group report mentioned in a Department of Health brochure to avoid siting masts near schools?

I ask then, why the 100-plus people living within 30 yards of this tower should have to be subjected to these waves for 24 hours a day, seven days a week for ever, when, by a free choice, they signed a petition against it?

At the Burnley Council committee meeting it was suggested that it was not in its remit to deny the planning application, as the planning officer's aesthetic objections had been overcome by placing the equipment in the tower.

The decision was deferred until it had been checked whether there were bats in the tower. Clearly, the welfare of bats takes precedence over that of pensioners, children and parents living in this area.

In a microwave oven, a chicken would still get cooked whether on high power or on low power, albeit more slowly. People here would be subjected to these microwaves with no respite.

The official lie of the church, through Canon Jim Duxbury, is that it is entirely safe and that the revenue created from the installation was necessary to pay for repairs to St Leonard's, damaged by vandals.

Yet, a recent report in a national newspaper states that all monies from the rental gathered from the installation of phone masts on church property are paid into a central national account and, thus, money from St Leonard's would not go directly to its own funds. Who is correct?

Without public resistance now, mobile phone masts will be erected in many other densely populated regions, exposing many others.

I urge everyone to speak out against them. It cannot be difficult to find suitable sites far enough away from people's homes.

DENNIS CANNON, Gawthorpe Street, Padiham.