4th March 2001
FADER organises Sunday afternoon protest rally outside Holy Trinity Church to coincide with the new Bishop of Ripon and Leeds visiting. Around one hundred residents took part in a peacefull and dignified
gathering outside Holy Trinity Arch on Gracious Street from 3pm to 4pm.
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Signatures were gathered on a petition reading “ We are strongly opposed to the threatened Vodafone antenna installation in Holy Trinity Church spire. We object to the unnecessary vandalism of a listed structure and the potential microwave radiation health hazards”. Congregation members arriving for the 4pm service also signed.
The Bishop, The Rt Revd J R Packer,
though entering by a side entrance did come out to speak to protestors, he said that the church was offering use of the spire to Vodafone “as a service to the community”, this seems at odds with earlier statements
about the importance of church funding, now the church must realise what the community around the church feels.
Subjecting the community to
radiation, which is most likely to affect the young and infirm, is like feeding condemned food to the starving.
It’s quite a coincidence, see Tuesday news, that two of the protestors had
lost their 5 year old grandson who lived under electricity pylons to leukaemia.
Following the service, two residents delivering the petition in to the Bishop were asked to leave the premises by a church warden, but declined to do so as the bishop was already aware that they were waiting for him. Both the service and Sunday afternoon tea in the church hall are open to the public. Anyone, even if not liked by the wardens, should be able to attend. Eventually the petition, 283 signatures, was handed to the bishop
Look North news covered the event and they showed the story later that day. The Knaresborough Post newspaper is planning to carry the rally story as front page news in the next edition.
