RESIDENTS in Barnoldswick are stepping up their campaign to have a mobile phone transmitter removed from the town's fire station training tower -- after fire service bosses said it was staying put.

Householders fear microwaves from the commercial mast could harm their health, but a call by LibDem councillor Alan Hackett for the contract to be cancelled failed to win support at last week's meeting of Lancashire county's Combined Fire Authority meeting.

Now Barnoldswick councillor David Whipp says he will join residents in a high-profile campaign for the transmitter at the Wellhouse Road station to be removed.

"We had hoped to win agreement on a low key basis, without much fuss, but now we are going to have a full-blooded campaign and we intend to raise a petition very soon," he said.

The fire authority meeting heard that commercial transmitters had been placed in drill towers at Barnoldswick, Skelmersdale, Euxton and Blackpool -- netting £20,000 a year for the service.

The Barnoldswick contract, started in 1999, is due to run until August 2004.

Fire and Rescue Service spokesman John Taylor said the authority was looking into the implications of the Stewart report on mobile phones and health.

He added it was the service's intention to maintain the existing sites for the term of the contracts but not to enter into any additional agreements.

Coun Whipp said the service had withdrawn from plans for transmitter at Padiham fire station.

He said: The mobile phone mast was erected before concern over health issues became widespread.

"Following very high profile opposition to siting two other masts at Park Hill and Gisburn Street in Barnoldswick, people are now questioning the siting at the fire station."

Coun Whipp said siting of transmitters on buildings owned by the public was totally wrong in view of public concern and the fire authority should establish a policy on siting masts, with a presumption against doing so.