Network Rail plan to erect 2,000 microwave radio masts, one every four or five miles along every railway line in the UK.

Each of these masts will be at least 110 feet tall - as high as a 12-storey block of flats, and more than twice the height of a normal cellular phone mast.

They claim they have the right to do this without planning permission.

The hamlet of New Mill, near Marlborough in Wiltshire, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is among the first locations selected by Network Rail.

NIMBYism is not enough!

Almost everyone in this country will suffer to some extent from Network Rail's GSM-R masts, even if it's "only" by having a favourite view spoilt.

It would be nearly as unpleasant for the inhabitants of New Mill to have the mast moved back to Milkhouse Water (a neighbouring hamlet about half a mile away, which was Network Rail's first target). Indeed, several of our residents wrote to object to the Milkhouse Water mast (most of the others didn't know it was proposed!).

Network Rail's main weapons are stealth and fear: residents don't get to hear of their plans until the last minute, then panic and try to "pass the parcel" on to some other community.

This "divide and rule" strategy will only work if there is no co-ordinated campaign against the whole project.

If the public at large get to hear about what's afoot, and make their concerns known to the powers-that-be, the chances are that the whole project will be replaced by something more sensible, cheaper, and less intrusive.

Only a national organization can gain the attention of the national media, and thus the attention of the political establishment. There is already a well-established national pressure group on mobile-phone and Tetra masts, called Mast Sanity. All the information we have gathered over the past months is now available in a section of the Mast Sanity website dedicated to Network Rail's plans (which we have helped to set up). The site is here:

Visit this site to find out:

• The planned locations of 183 masts in Network Rail's south-west region - and how to get a list of sites for your own area.
• Why the only section of UK rail that won't comply with the EU Directive on European railway interoperability is the only section that interoperates with European railways.
• The planning paradox - why, to avoid consultation, Network Rail's planned masts are simultaneously both part of and separate from the railway infrastructure.
• How Network Rail claim that the masts are required by the Uff/Cullen Report on the Southall and Ladbroke Grove rail disasters, whereas the Report actually recommended a different solution which would not require masts - which Network Rail is ignoring.
• Why Network Rail is pioneering "the largest safety-critical [computerised] control system project ever undertaken in the UK", costing £3.6 billion, claiming that they are forced to do it by the EU - but no other EU country is planning to do the same.
• How Network Rail justifies the project by claiming it will save 300 road fatalities over 40 years by attracting road-users onto the railway (which is far safer) - but ignores the 36,000 road-users' lives that could be saved by spending the same money directly on road-safety.
• Why Network Rail plan to scrap the BR-ATP Automatic Train Protection system already in use on the Great Western line (which passes through New Mill) just as it's become "fully effective", and replace it instead with a totally unproven alternative - despite the recommendation of the Uff/Cullen Report to retain and extend BR-ATP.

How the mast might look (roughly to scale of cottage)

Network Rail's justification

Most of the residents of New Mill were not informed of Network Rail's plans, but some received a letter from Network Rail's Swindon Community Relations Manager setting out their reasons. The text below in italics is quoted verbatim from that letter, the text in Roman is paraphrased.

Network Rail is replacing its analogue radio systems with a digital communication system called GSM-R [Global System for Mobile Communications - Railways] that will, for the first time, provide a national system of driver to signaller communication. There are a number of reasons for implementing this safety radio system:

• A key recommendation of the Cullen Report into the Ladbroke Grove rail accident calls for a radio system that will allow communication between drivers and signallers nationwide.
• Network Rail's existing cab radio systems are obsolete.
• European directive 96/48 on interoperability of rail systems mandates the implementation of GSM-R across Europe to ensure that trains can safely travel from one country to another.

The letter goes on to state that The equipment is being installed using our permitted development rights - that is, they believe they don't need planning permission.

What you can do

You can help us, and everyone else threatened by these masts (including all those who simply enjoy unspoilt countryside), just by telling other people about Network Rail's plans and telling about them about the Mast Sanity website.

You can help even more by questioning the need for the whole GSM-R network with politicians and the media.

The more fuss we all make about this issue now, the less likely it is that one of these oversize masts will be coming to a railway near you in the next few years!

If you live close to New Mill, or visit the beautiful countryside of Pewsey Vale (particularly Martinsell Hill, which overlooks the proposed site of the mast - you can see the western end of it in the background of the pictures of New Mill at the top of this page), or enjoy the Kennet and Avon Canal, which passes through the hamlet, please write to Network Rail at this address:

   Morag Rickett
   Community Relations
      Manager
   Network Rail
   125 House
   1 Gloucester Street
   Swindon
   Wiltshire SN1 1GW

and to Kennet's planning department at this address:

   Karen Whittington
   Senior Planning Officer
   Community Services Group
   Kennet District Council
   Browfort
   Bath Road
   Devizes
   Wiltshire SN10 2AT

About New Mill

The hamlet of New Mill comprises 12 houses located mostly between the railway and the Kennet and Avon Canal. There are around 30 residents, including 11 children. A map of the locality is available here.

Despite its name, New Mill is quite old - it's shown on 18th century maps under that name, which evidently pre-dates the "new" mill house, which was built in the 19th century (it was a pound mill - a pound, or pond, filled with water overnight which was released during the day to drive the watermill).