A VILLAGE has lost its battle to stop a mobile phone mast designed to improve signals for rail passengers.

Vodafone has won permission from Durham City Council to build the 15-metre-high base station at Rogerson Terrace, Croxdale.

The mast, which will serve the nearby East Coast Main Line, was opposed by the parish council and some residents, who voiced fears about health and the mast's visual impact.

In 2000, Orange was refused permission for a similar mast on the site after the village's then-city councillor, Joe Anderson, now chairman of Croxdale Parish Council, said the plan was a blot on the landscape.

Speaking about the latest plan, Coun Anderson said he was unconvinced by Government assurances that phone masts posed no health hazard. He said: "The Government says that where they have to be, they will be. I think that, in years to come, we will regret it.''

Durham City's prospective parliamentary candidate, Roberta Blackman-Woods, met residents and Vodaphone representatives to discuss the plan.

She said Vodaphone had been asked by residents to reconsider the mast and look at other sites in the area that will be further from homes.

A Vodaphone spokeswoman said: "The site has got the specific technical requirements to provide coverage on the railway line, although it will enhance the service locally."

She said the mast would be painted dark green to help it blend into the landscape and that the company would listen to ideas to make it less intrusive.

She said research had found no evidence of any risk to health.

A city council spokesman said the Government's rules on considering planned masts meant that health concerns could not be taken into account.