SHEFFIELD FIGHTS BACK AGAINST CHINA'S MOST POWERFUL OVERLORD

Mast Protest gets Ring of Steel. Don't Buy 3G, say campaigners

In Sheffield last week, a protection ring of up to 30 police officers was set up around workmen installing a mobile phone mast to prevent protesters sabotaging their work. The mast was part of the 3G Network, which is owned by Hutchison. In its turn, Hutchison is owned by the notorious Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing, whose other enterprises, according to a recent biography, include forming a partnership with two leading members of the Asian Triad organized crime families, Robert Kwok and Henry Fok.

Hutchison are notorious for swamping already stretched planning departments with applications to ensure that their masts get built. They are planning on erecting 35,000 masts countrywide. "If the community doesn't want us, we don't go away" one of their spokesmen commented recently.

In Sheffield, an earlier attempt to begin installation work at Berkeley Precinct, Ecclesall Road, was called off two weeks ago because residents angry at the development successfully disrupted the work.

They claimed they were acting legally by moving around the area where the installation was due to take place, meaning the job had to be abandoned. Workmen, though, were able to start work when they were shepherded into the site by a platoon of officers.

Today South Yorkshire Police their actions were necessary to allow contractors to work. Their tactics appeared to have outmanoeuvred the protesters. Around 50 gathered and kept a vigil at the site until the installation work stopped at midnight, in line with a curfew imposed by Sheffield Council. Police said there was no trouble and no arrests.

The contractors spent four hours digging a hole, installing the mast base and wiring up the electrics. Protesters now fear they will return to finish the job. Mike Beaken of Wadbrough Road, Ecclesall, was on site at dawn with Liz Dathorne of Khartoum Road.

Liz said: "People around here are watching the site all the time in case they turn up again. There is a lot of local opposition to this. "It is just a case of watching as much as we can but we don't know when they are going to come back."

Chief Insp Alan Shepherd said: "The operation was pre-planned to facilitate the lawful right of the contractors involved to carry out their work. "The work was authorised by the local authority and we were notified in advance of the date the work was to be carried out because the last time the workmen turned up they were prevented from going about their business because of a demonstration.

"This time they were able to carry out their work and protesters were still able to stage their demonstration to make their views known." Objectors to the mast, which enables phones to send photos and video clips, said the company had been "secretive and underhand" to try to install it at night. People used a loud hailer to chant objections, and a samba band played.