Residents living near the future site of a phone mast vs. Orange

Interdiction to install an Orange mobile phone antenna in a church tower.

A judge in Angers Tribunal de Grande Instance (District Court) has forbidden the Orange phone company to install mobile phone antennas in the bell tower of a church right next to a school.

This judgement is a first in France, since sentence has been passed before the event.
The judge explained that his decision was based specifically on the precautionary principle.

On the initiative of a residents' action group and the parents of pupils at the school, half the 400 inhabitants in Notre Dame d’Allençon, near Angers, who organised the petition against the installation of an Orange mobile phone base station in the bell tower of their church.

Within 50 metres of it there is a nursery school and a primary school, a fact that Françoise Aubin, the protest organiser, pointed out to Orange in no uncertain terms: "It will be right on top of the nursery school and the primary school, so we want it somewhere else!"

Faced with the decision by the Town Council to grant permission for the installation, the protest group realised that they had to act, and then took the initiative by bringing a petition against Orange before the District Court in Angers.

Their defence was undertaken by Maître Denis Seguin, a lawyer who specialises in environmental law, who in his summing up emphasised the precautionary principle:
"At Notre-Dame-d'Allençon, the children would be exposed against their will."
In his plea the lawyer listed the most common pathologies caused by exposure to artificial hyperfrequency microwave radiation.

In the name of the group Maître Seguin even proposed to Orange an alternative site:
"We made a proposition, but it would mean putting up a pylon, and the cost is not the same as in the bell tower."

Through their lawyer Maître Christian Sourau, from the bar of Val d'Oise, the response from Orange was not long in coming: "The bell tower exactly meets the requirements for completing the link-up of the network. Orange respects the regulations and the recommendations from the authorities."

As for the health hazards from artificial microwave radiation, he added: "All the effects cited are not scientifically proven. The experts have not found any health hazard. At Notre Dame d'Allençon the exposure to microwave emissions will be 50 times less than the statutory limit. The beams will not be directed at the school."

On Thursday 5 March 2009, after a month of deliberation, the judgement given by the Angers Court forbids Orange to install the relay antenna in the tower.

The Court (photo) explains its decision by pointing out that the site of the school is less than 100 metres from the church, and is therefore very likely to be subjected to the radiation from the antenna.

As a result the judgement stipulates that the school should be classed as a 'sensitive' building and therefore merits the specific application of article 110 of the environment code detailing the precautionary principle.

The decision is based also on a statement in the report of Prof. Denis Zmirou, the former Scientific Director of AFSSE (Health and Safety Authority):
"There is a health risk for people living nearby."

The judge also cites the statement that: "It is preferable to reduce to a minimum the exposure level of potentially vulnerable people such as children and certain people who are sick."

In consequence, "In the light of uncertainties over the guarantees offered for the protection of a sensitive building such as the municipal school ... the precautionary principle compels us to forbid the realisation of the plans to install relay antennas in the bell tower of the church of Notre-Dame d'Allençon".

The terms of the judgement sentence the phone operator Orange to pay the sum of 2500€ to the petitioners as well as costs.

In addition to being forbidden to install the antennas, Orange is also subject to a penalty of 5000€ "per observed offence per day if they carry out the prohibited works."