CONCERNS over the influx of applications to build mobile phone masts has prompted a councillor to call for the help of an independent expert.

Chester-le-Street District councillor John Evans is aiming to persuade councils in the region to collectively hire an independent technical expert to look at applications from telecommunications companies for mobile phone masts.

The move is in response to people's concerns about the perceived health risks from emissions from telecommunications masts and the number being built in the district.

Coun Evans estimated there are about two dozen mobile phone transmitters within the 35 to 40 sq km boundaries of the district. He said: "Planning officers aren't telecommunications engineers or micro-electronic electricians. If we got together we could share the cost of a technical consultant who could advise us, as and when needed, on planning applications for mobile phone transmitters.

"Given the amount of opposition to this from the public, it would be money well spent.

"The last application to build a mobile telephone transmitter at the greyhound stadium we had a petition signed by goodness knows how many people and 500 letters of objection."

The bid by Hutchinson 3G to put up the mast at Pelaw Grange was rejected by councillors. Residents were concerned that it was only 100 metres from Park View Comprehensive School and it was refused on the grounds that it would create an eyesore for nearby residents.

According to the council, in the last 12 months it has received eight applications to build masts - three of which involved sharing existing sites. Six of the bids were refused planning permission.

On Tuesday, the Government released research claiming levels of radiation from mobile phone masts in the country fall hundreds of millions of times below international guidelines.

But the report has been greeted with scepticism by campaign groups Mast Action UK and Mast Sanity, who say the emission guidelines were set ten years ago, before a lot of the advances in mobile technology.