Update on Campaign Weds 3rd Nov 2004

First of all we'd like to thank everyone who came to the public meeting last Tuesday, your contribution will make a huge difference to the campaign.

Llanidloes has begun a fantastic - and fun - campaign against the TETRA mast. We have achieved a huge amount already, and this is a moment to mark some of our achievements.

• We rallied the best part of a thousand people to sign a petition against the mast.
• We had a demonstration against the mast which brought dozens of people marching through the streets.
• We organised a public meeting and almost three hundred people came to listen and find out more about TETRA.
• We met MMO2 in London, and made them feel decently chastised.

In the last few months, we - the protest group - have concentrated on three things: information, information, and information.

An "information desk" has been set up in the library and now in the Health Centre.

People from the action group have lobbied Powys Council on this issue, sending information, writing letters and asking the Council to fully inform itself on this issue. As a result, there seems to have been a marked rise in their level of concern.

People from our protest group have met reporters and editors from the local press and our campaign has attracted a lot of attention.

We have got in touch with other groups concerned about environmental issues, and we have leafletted in various places around Llanidloes including Caersws and Staylittle. As a result, Caersws residents arranged their own public meeting, inviting two people from the Llanidloes protest group to speak, and Caersws is now setting up its own action group.

We have utterly convinced the MP Lembit Opik of the extent of our concerns.

People who rented office space in the Railway Station building wrote of their concerns about the mast to their landlords, Spencer Holdings. As a result, Spencer Holdings is now in full support of the townspeople and the town council in opposing this mast. Spencer Holdings own some of the roadways around the mast, and they took out an injunction forbidding any contractors working on the mast from digging up any of their roads. It was a short-term success, but a success it certainly was.

We've come up with ideas for further publicity - and have made beautiful "Tetra-mast" lanterns for a procession on November 5th.

The Ecologist magazine published a long article about Tetra, as a whole, and Llanidloes in particular. The article has created enormous interest, amongst the public, and politicians and particularly amongst the police. (Some officers in the Hampshire police force have said they may refuse to use the handsets as a result.)

We've done well so far. Very well. But we need your help. We need YOUR ideas - YOUR initiative - and YOUR input

As a campaign, we have costs which need to be covered. Any imaginative fund-raising suggestions?

We want to come up with lots more publicity ideas. (A vigil? A party when (and if) it's switched on?)

We want to reach out to other groups locally and nationally - can you help with that?

If you can think of something which needs doing, please offer to do it. This is a job which needs all of us to pull together. Then when we've got rid of the mast - which we will eventually - you can say I was a part of that.