A MAST protest is taking place in one Cleveleys street as angry residents say 'no' to a proposed communications tower overlooking their homes.

Neighbours on Cumberland Avenue, Cleveleys have organised seven petitions -- totalling more than 100 signatures -- against a proposed 15 metre high mast on the Dorset Trading Estate, Dorset Avenue.

Telecommunications company Vodafone wants to use the new mast to replace their existing mast.

The new mast would be sited around 12 metres from the boundary of the nearest properties. The current mast is nine metres away. But residents are not happy. "We can see it from our windows. It looks horrible. It's not healthy," protested one 77-year-old who has lived on the street for 20 years.

She asked not to be named, but added that two neighbours had complained to her of constantly feeling tired since the existing mast was put up.

The pensioner said she'd been one of a small group knocking on doors with a petition.

"When people read about it they said 'Have you got a petition? We'll sign it, no messing'," she said.

Wyre councillor Penny Martin handed the petitions, along with four letters of complaint, to the council's planning department.

She said: "The mast that's there already is ugly. The new one is going to have three arms and dishes on the top of it. If it was at the back of my house I wouldn't be very pleased."

A spokesman for the council's planning department confirmed: "Vodafone wish to replace an existing mast with one which is the same height but has a thicker profile when you look at it and it will have different antennae on it.

"It's not above 15 metres high which means that formal planning permission is not needed. The company only need to notify the council of their intention."

He said as a result of Cllr Martin and residents raising the issue, the mast would be discussed at a planning applications committee meeting on July 9.

Residents with views to express on the mast can still write to the Planning Department at Wyre Borough Council, Breck Road, Poulton with their views.

An independent report published in May 2000, and based on research work by concluded that there 'was no general risk to the health of people living near base stations'.

But the report's authors, the Stewart Group, also recommended 'a precautionary approach' to the use of mobile phones and base stations until 'more research findings became available'.