A BLACKBURN man today claimed a mobile phone dish was destroying his family's health.

Now Neil Harrington, of Ramsgreave Road, is leading the fight to stop a new mobile phone mast being put up just metres from his home and has written to his MP to intervene in the matter.

Mr Harrington believes an existing mobile phone dish on the proposed site at the Wilpshire telephone exchange is already behind his and his family's health problems.

But the company behind the structure is standing by claims that the masts are harmless.

Plans for the Three Generation phone mast have been under consideration for some time, but the mast is due to go up soon.

Residents in Ramsgreave Road and neighbouring street, Paris, were invited to a meeting held by planners and were assured there was no risk to their health.

But Mr Harrington is strongly opposed to the plans and thinks an existing O2 phone dish on the building has caused his and his father's muscle spasms and his and his mother's diabetes. He has written to Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans who is now waiting for a reply from Deputy PM John Prescott.

Mr Harrington, 51, said: "We don't object to mobile phones, just where they put the mast. This thing is going to be around 50 metres from our home. The company says it will not give out radiowaves not microwaves but they are the same thing. They are putting wealth before health.

"They should be keeping these things away from where people live - they are potential killers."

A leading East Lancashire campaigner is backing Mr Harrington. Dennis Cannon, chairman of Burnley-based pressure group Together Against Masts (TAM), says phone companies are misleading the public into thinking the structures do not give out microwave radiation and are exploiting rules that allow normal planning procedures to be by-passed.

Mr Cannon, whose group has 2,000 members, said: "These people are rightly concerned. The rules laid down by the Government say that if a mast is on an existing structure or no taller than 15 metres it does not require planning consent.

"Planning is purely to do with aesthetics, but if residents oppose the plans on health grounds it can be stopped. In this case no planning permission is required so health concerns cannot be taken into consideration.

"Saying these masts do not give out microwaves is completely untrue, make no mistake about it. Microwaves are radiowaves, just short frequency ones."

But a spokesman for Crown Castle, the company putting the mast on behalf of Three Generation, said: "We take seriously residents' concerns about the company's intention to site telecommunications equipment at the Wilpshire telephone exchange.

"We understand that the siting of these types of installations within communities can sometimes cause concern and we try to address these issues in an open and honest manner. This development, like all of Crown Castles radio transmission sites, will operate well within guideline levels for electro-magnetic emissions."

The spokesman also quoted a report by the advisory group on non-ionising radiation (AGNIR) in which Professor Lawrie Challis, from the University of Nottingham, said radiation exposure from base stations was at least 1,000 times less than it was from mobile phones handsets.