A MORETON councillor is gearing up to fight application for more mobile phone masts in the town.

An application has been made by phone giants Vodafone and Telefonica who want to share a mast near Tesco Express in Hoylake Road at its junction with Millhouse Lane.

Councillor for Moreton West & Saughall ,Chris Blakeley, who has led several campiagns in recent years against phone masts, told the Globe: “So far we’ve nine letters of objection so hopefully planners will recommend that this proposal is rejected.

"A pre-application consultation process is also underway for a phone mast and equipment on the grass verge in Saughall Massie Road, close to its junction with Kingfisher Way.

"At the moment, no formal application has been submitted for this mast. But it’s only a matter of time before it is.

“Once this happens, we will campaign against it because it would be right in the middle of a residential area.”

In February Vodafone lost an appeal to overturn Wirral Council's refusal to grant planning permission for a 9.4-metre G3 phone mast near a children's play area in Town Meadow Lane.

Councillor Blakeley added: “It seems to be the case in Moreton that whenever an application to site a phone mast is rejected there’s another one waiting in the wings.”

A spokesman for Vodafone said: "Our customers expect to be able to use their mobiles and devices where they live work and travel.

“If the present rate of internet access on mobile devices continues our modelling shows that members of the public will not be able to access mobile services without the improvement in coverage provided by the proposed base station.

“We recognise that some communities are concerned regarding the deployment of radio base stations close to residential areas but without radio base stations, mobile phones will not be able to work.

“All of our base stations are designed, built and operated in accordance with stringent international guidelines laid down by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.

“The adoption of these guidelines has the formal backing of independent bodies such as the World Health Organisation.

“Typical public exposures from our base stations will be many hundreds, if not thousands, of times below these guidelines. ”