RESIDENTS are being called to engage in a campaign opposing plans to site a phone mast in Holcombe Brook.

As reported in last week's Bury Times, mobile phone giants O2 have applied to install a 15-metre high flexicell column, three antennae and two equipment cabinets on land opposite the Hare and Hounds Hotel on Bolton Road West.

Now campaigners are urging local people to sign a petition against the application and send letters of objection against the plans to Bury Council's planning department.

Campaign spokesperson Wendy Atherden, who lives close to where the mast would be sited, told the Bury Times: "Everyone I have spoken to has said they are concerned about the health implications associated with mobile phone masts. They say they can limit their childrens use of mobile phones but they cannot limit their exposure to the mast."

Miss Atherden said that the planned site was unsuitable given the number of people passing it through the day and even more inappropriate given that it would be erected near to a high school.

She said: "The Government's chief advisor on mobile phone safety said he would prefer masts not to be near schools. There could hardly be a clearer warning and Woodhey High School is very close to the proposed site for the mast. He recommends that exclusion zones should be set up around these masts and health concerns could veto certain locations."

She added: "Pedestrians, residents of Woodhey, people catching buses, hundreds of schoolchildren and motorists will pass within a 100-metre distance of the mast every day."

Coun Dorothy Gunther has already lodged an objection on similar grounds and stated that a better location should be found for a mast of that height.

Petitions against the application have been placed in the children's shoe shop, the local butcher, newsagents, hairdressers and the chip shop, all on Holcombe Brook Precinct, and in the Hare and Hounds Hotel.

Miss Atherden said: "It is very important people to get involved in the campaign. The more support we get, the stronger our campaign and the better chance we have. I would urge as many people as possible to sign the petition and write letters to the planning department objecting against this mast."

Campaigners will also address planning bosses when the application is put before the planning committee in the near future.

With regard to health concerns, a spokeswoman for O2 said that masts of this nature operate at levels "below" the international guidelines set, and added that health concerns recently centred on the use of handsets rather phone masts.

"This site will serve our customers and is not right in the middle of a residential area," she said.

"There have been studies and there are still ongoing studies and no link with ill-health has been established from base stations.

"These stations emit non-ionising radiation which is not harmful, and the levels are well below those deemed to be a risk to health."

She added that the company had written to Woodhey High School about its application and had received no response.