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Epilepsy girl given home tuition away from mast blamed for fits
Lizzie Murphy A LOCAL authority is allowing a girl aged 12 to stay away from school over fears a police radio mast may be triggering her epileptic fits.
The family of Nicola Packard in South Wales was prepared to take Pembrokeshire County Council to the High Court to get her home tuition after a Tetra mast used by police was erected by mobile phone operator O2 near her school.
Nicola has epilepsy and normally experiences one or two seizures a month but on the day the mast was turned on in May she had seven fits. Her mother, Jayne Packard, said the fits continued with alarming frequency whenever her daughter would attend the Portfield Special school, which is a little over half a mile from the mast on Haverfordwest police station.
The council has agreed to provide home tuition for Nicola, of Hakin, Milford Haven.
The family now want to take legal action against Dyfed-Powys Police to force them to remove the mast so that Nicola can return to school.
Mrs Packard, 34, said: "Nicola just didn't have any quality of life after the mast was turned on. The effects of the seizures would last for days. Now she is much better at home and I cannot fault the education department of the council for agreeing with us."
But a spokeswoman for Pembrokeshire County Council said: "This is a pragmatic response to ensure that the individual child is provided with suitable education and should not be construed as a judgment on issues surrounding the location of Tetra masts."
Mother-of-three Dr Christine Nunn, of Bardsey, near Leeds, has been battling for two years to rid her village of a mobile phone mast after a blunder by Leeds City Council meant residents' objections could not be heard and planning permission for the mast was granted automatically.
The part-time GP said: "I think it is dreadful for this young girl and her family to be in this position.
"The technology is rolled out before the safety is proven, leaving this family and others around the country in the position of not knowing what effect these masts can have.
"The Government is putting the interests of the industry before that of potentially vulnerable individuals such as children."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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