CAMPAIGNERS are urging people to claim compensation in the wake of a controversial decision to allow a phone mast to be built near three schools.

The pressure group Campaign for Planning Sanity has reacted angrily to Friday's Appeal Court decision to allow a 25-metre mast to be built within yards of three schools in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, despite opposition by councillors, parents and teachers.

The court sided with a legal challenge brought by mobile phone companies T-Mobile, Orange and Hutchison 3G -a ruling that could affect thousands of other mast applications.

The campaigners are calling for the Government to redraw planning policy to reflect the views of communities that have consistently raised concerns over the potential health risks to children at schools near phone masts.

The director of Planning Sanity, Chris Maile, said he wanted the Government to allow local authority planning officers to consider health issues when discussing mobile phone masts.

At present, the planning system bans any discussion of health matters.

Mr Maile said a three-year-old report is about to be published showing that emissions from high-voltage cables have caused a doubling of cases of leukaemia in young children.

He said: "Communities can sit back and be forever walked on, or they can fight back. The easy remedy is to put pressure in this election year on our politicians to take the action needed to protect our children."

Planning Sanity also said that property values can fall by as much as 25 per cent because of masts, which can have other adverse affects on people's lives.

The group said anyone who suffers an adverse effect on their property because of a mast can seek compensation from the phone operators under the Electronic Communication Code.

He cited a case in Swindon, where four families were awarded a total of £117,500 because of masts.

Mr Mailes said: "If sufficient numbers of people exercise their rights, the operators could be facing claims amounting to billions of pounds.

"It does not take a genius to calculate the potential cost to the operators from a wholesale payout of compensation."