WORRIED residents have spelled out their health fears over RAF Fylingdales to Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram.

People attending a public meeting called to discuss the base's involvement in Son of Star Wars spoke of their concerns about cancer risks to people living locally, to walkers and also to personnel at Fylingdales.

One woman, Sue Cowan, of Thornton-le-Dale, said she knew many base employees who had died and had cancer, while Jackie Fearnley, of Goathland, said: "People want to know if it is safe to go walking round there and have a picnic at Ellerbeck (a beauty spot near Fylingdales)."

Another woman called for Government funding of epidemiological studies by the Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale Primary Care Trust to assess the cancer risks.

But PCT chief executive Michael Whitworth said no concerns about Fylingdales had been expressed to the trust by GPs or by consultants at Scarborough Hospital, or the Community Health Council.

Nor had clinicians observed any changes in the frequency of diagnosis of various cancers, or in the pattern of the kind of cancers occurring in the area.

However, if there was public concern, the trust could conduct a study without funding by the Ministry of Defence. The meeting in Thornton-le-Dale village hall, attended by almost 100 people, came after the Evening Press revealed last night that radiation watchdog, the NRPB, was planning to tighten its safety guidelines on radiological emission levels as a precautionary measure. Paul Taylor, director of strategic technologies at the MoD, told the meeting that the new guidelines would be ten times more stringent than existing levels.

He revealed that, while levels outside the RAF base would still be within the tougher guidelines, there would be areas inside the base where it might be necessary to provide some form of screening equipment to protect personnel.

Many residents said their worries had been heightened by the reported concerns of US Air Force scientist Dr Richard Albanese about emissions from such bases.

Mr Ingram said such views were taken into account by the MoD, but he stressed that they were not supported by other scientists.

Wing Commander Chris Knapman, of RAF Fylingdales, said there had been deaths and cancer cases amongst personnel, but there was no evidence whatsoever that rates were any worse than anywhere else.

Mr Taylor said the Son Of Star Wars missile defence project would not mean any changes to the base's radar or its power or frequency, but simply to computer software and hardware. The Minister said some people had concerns that the base's initial involvement in missile defence was the "thin end of the wedge."

But further developments, such as the installation of interceptor rockets within the North York Moors national park, were not even being contemplated, let alone planned.

Updated: 10:47 Friday, June 27, 2003