NEW telecommunication masts designed to look like trees will have added safety precautions to prevent children climbing them.

Guidelines for the siting of the masts, called portasilo stealth tree masts, ensure that no member of the public will be able to gain entry to the actual site.

And if this is somehow breached, barbed wire-topped fencing surrounding the mast's equipment cabin will prevent anyone anyone climbing it if they mistake the mast for a real tree.

These designs have been designed to fit wherever they are placed in rural areas. The first has been brought out by Orange. A spokesperson said: "In planning the location of our sites we are as sympathetic as possible to the environment.

"Transmitter site designs such as the Orange Tree are often used in areas of outstanding natural beauty where agreement is reached with local authorities."

The structure of the mast is that of a 15 to 25 metre steel column which is painted and covered with leaves of a transparent nature.

The latest of these telecommunications masts, based on a Scot's Pine design, will be sited on land at Clough Bottom, Broad Oak, on the Accrington and Baxenden border. It will be introduced after Hyndburn Council turned down plans for a conventional mast on visual grounds.

In addition five more trees will be planted to mask the compound and help the stealth mast to harmonise with the landscape.