A CONTROVERSIAL bid to build a new mobile phone mast in Barnards Green is back on the cards.

Mobile giant 02 has submitted an application to Malvern Hills District Council to put up a 12.5m mast with three antennas on the Six Ways Industrial Estate, in Barnards Green Road.

The mast would be made to look like a telegraph pole, and require an equipment cabinet nearby.

An application by O2 for a 15m mast on the same site in 2006 was refused after members of the public raised concerns over then visual impact, and the possible harmful effects from radiation.

Henry Ford, who lives in Court Road, spoke out against the 2006 proposals, and is planning to object to the new application.

“There is a general feeling in the area against having this phone mast, and I am sure that all the people who made their feelings known so strongly last time will do so again,” he said. “There are fears that the transmissions are possible harmful, and also the intrusive nature of the structure.”

In a written objection to MHDC, Tim Kitching, of G&B Projects Co in Barnards Green, said nothing had changed since the last application, and that the number of people working in the area, and the proximity of a nursing home and school playing fields made the area unsuitable for the installation.

O2 spokesman Angela Johnson said the company had a commitment to providing a network across the UK.

“There are 70 million handsets in use in this country, and they will not work without a network of masts,” she said. “The more people use their phones the more capacity we need, and that is why this mast is urgently required.

“The mast proposed is a new slimline telegraph pole type which has been designed to fit in with the local environment so that it is not intrusive.”

She added that both the World Health Organisation and Health Protection Agency have stated there is no health risk associated with the type of installation proposed.

“We are talking about a very low-powered two-way radio transmitter, one-tenth as powerful as a taxi’s two-way radio and millions of times less powerful than a television transmitter,” she said.

Comments on the application can be made to MHDC until Tuesday, August 12.