RESIDENTS in Darwen have started a campaign to stop plans for two mobile phone masts on a town centre building.

A petition signed by 15 people living in the Everton Street area has been presented to the planning and highways committee at Blackburn with Darwen Council.

Their petition was considered just minutes before approval was given for an existing 17-metre mast in the Cotton Hall industrial estate to be replaced by a 21-metre high one.

The 15 residents living near to the BT Exchange, Back Wood Street, fear that the new masts will cause a loss of light and loss of privacy because workmen will be able to see into their homes.

Like the Cotton Hill application, the new masts are required to cater for the new 3G (Third Generation) mobile phones.

3G phones enable mobile phone users to access the internet more quickly via their handset, give clear call quality and let people send better images.

But for them to work, they need new masts. Councillors agreed to note the petition at the BT Exchange site and will decide whether to give it planning permission at a future meeting.

They did give planning permission to the Cotton Hill application, despite concern from Coun Paul Browne, a Darwen councillor and leader of the Liberal Democrats.

He said: "It causes me great concern that the mobile phone masts are suddenly getting larger. Surely these so-called experts should know in advance whether a mobile phone mast will be tall enough.

"Every time some new technology comes along, are we going to have taller masts? It is getting ridiculous and it is worrying people."

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said: "They need a taller mast to accommodate the new technology.

"At the moment, the site is only used by one firm.

"In the future, a second firm will come in there and share the mast.

"That is preferable to a new mast being erected elsewhere."

An objection from a nearby factory owner that his staff would be exposed to increased emissions from the mast were over-ruled because it could not be substantiated.

Nobody from BT was available for comment.