A long-running battle over a controversial telecommunications tower is set to go before the courts next month.

Bermuda Digital Communications and the Fairmont Southampton Princess are expected to battle over the site at Faraway, Warwick in the Supreme Court.

The legal action arose after BDC filed a writ against West End Properties, which operates the land as part of Fairmont Southampton Princess property, after the hotel served notice to terminate BDC's lease.

Any court action will be watched closely by Warwick residents who fought a long battle to have the tower blocked, fearing it could emit cancer-causing radiation to homes close by.

They formed an organisation, Communities Against Radiation Emissions (CARE), and called upon Government to survey all radio towers on safety grounds.

Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb used US Federal Communications Commission standards, which showed the Warwick tower was safe.

But last night CARE spokesman Steve Thomson said residents' fight would go on as they still believed the tower, used for a mobile phone service, was a danger.

He said: "Other countries like Austria have levels that are 40 times lower than the US. Which one do we fall under? We are certainly not happy with the US standards.

"We continue to insist that the tower possesses a health risk to families and children.'' And Mr. Thomson said CARE would still urge a boycott of Fairmont and Canadian Pacific hotels worldwide -- contacting hotel headquarters in Toronto to press their point.

"Also we are using media and political pressure to point out CP's poor environmental standing here in Bermuda,'' he said. "In most other countries towers are not located in school and residential areas to reduce any risk of harm.'' The fight over the tower has raged for a year, after CARE raised awareness of the issue.

At one point Fairmont Southampton Princess staff, living in quarters close to the site, asked general manager Norman Mastalir to be moved from the cottages, fearing a health risk from the tower.

The saga resulted in an Island-wide survey by an overseas expert into the risks associated with the towers.