A PUBLIC meeting is being held in Calstock to discuss the proposal for a controversial 29 metre high railway communications mast.

Calstock Village Hall will be the venue for the meeting on March 11 at 7pm and it will be open to residents in Bere Alston and Bere Ferrers where masts are also planned as part of an updated communications system.

Network Rail does not need planning permission to install these structures but is meeting with opposition from communities who are concerned about their visual impact and potential health issues by siting them so close to houses.

At a meeting of Calstock Parish Council last week, resident Brian Jackman said the proposed mast would be 20 metres from his back door.

'This is very close to my property and will be visible from many other people's back gardens,' he said. 'It is being situated at the lowest part of the valley and will have to be very high to get the signals out.'

Members of the parish council said a recent meeting with a representative from Network Rail at the site of the proposed mast was not that successful, as all the questions were not answered.

Cllr Norma Greenslade said it was not right that the rail company had 'carte blanche' to put up anything it wanted anywhere in the country, unlike mobile phone companies who had to apply for planning permission to put up transmitters.

Council chairman Dick Hoile said the structure was not narrow and had a wide base and a big array of antennae at the top.

He said: 'I would like to know how safe these are being so close to people's properties. I would not be happy if I lived in these houses.

'I think we should have a public meeting sponsored by the parish council to find out the strength of feeling in Calstock.

'There may be little we can do about the mast but perhaps they will give it a rethink.'

The masts, which are being erected along lines up and down the country, will improve communication between train drivers and signallers, considerably improving safety, reliability and punctuality, say Network Rail.

But councillors questionned how useful this system would be on what was mostly a single track tourist line.

Cllr Hoile said it was an EU directive but the rest of the EU was ignoring it.

Cllr Dorothy Kirk said the line did cross another line and there were trains which followed one another, so safety was an issue: 'We could do with someone really well informed talking to us at the public meeting,' she said.