A MALVERN couple want to know why power lines close to their home cannot be moved when a similar situation on a nearby industrial estate is about to be resolved.

Gemma McManus and Patrick Frater spoke out after reading in the Malvern Gazette about plans to move similar high voltage cables which cross industrial land at the Enigma Business Park.

The couple live in Dogwood Close, south of Enigma Business Park, and their house is almost directly beneath a similar, but smaller, power line which leads into the industrial estate.

Mr Frater said: "We were told by the developer when we bought this house new in 1997 that the cables would be taken away within 12 months. It's now 2001 and nothing has been done."

Ms McManus said: "If they are willing to move the other power cable because they are worried about the possible health effects on the factory workers, why do we have to put up with the cable very near our house? It runs directly above land that children play on."

Mr Frater said that in 1999 Midlands Electricity sent a technician to measure emissions from the cable and wrote to tell him the results were "many times below the recommended minimum".

"They told us that it is less than the emission from a TV set. But we are lay people, who are we to judge?"

Caroline Ling, spokeswoman for GPU Power UK, said: "It's a very difficult situation. If the developers told buyers the line was coming down, they really should not have said that.

"The cable was there before the houses, but developers sometimes build houses under our cables.

"Moving a cable is very expensive and we would not do it unless we had a very good reason. The industry position is that extensive research has shown no link between electro-magnetic fields and ill-health.

"We have been asked to move the other cable by the landowners, but even so, we might not get consent from the Department of Trade and Industry."