CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for more mobile phone dishes to be installed in the heart of their community hope the proposal will be refused.

Plans to add an extra five metres to a mobile phone mast situated in the car park of the Newton Hall pub, on the Newton Hall estate, have met with uproar from residents.

The plans, lodged by Hutchinson 3G, also involve adding three antenna and two dishes to the mast.

But George Hunter, Durham city and county councillor for the area, says he has been inundated with phone calls from worried residents, who have started a petition.

Coun Hunter said the mast is only a couple of streets away from three schools and a childminding practice and would be an eyesore. He also spoke out about the number of phone masts being built, when the risks to public health were still not fully understood.

Residents are now pinning their hopes on councillors following the recommendation of planners to turn down plans at a city council meeting on Monday.

He said: "If the plans are still turned down, the developers might still appeal against it. I've told people they can still go down to the meeting and hand their petition in to show their strength of feeling."

Retired public health consultant Dr Elaine Osborne has joined the protest as a resident of Newton Hall. She said: "There seems to be as many people arguing that there are harmful affects of radiation as not. That's what worries me." Last week parents from Neville's Cross Primary in Durham lost their battle to stop three antennae being placed 100 metres away on the Neville's Cross Pub when city councillors approved plans.

Like residents from Newton Hall, they also worried about the effects of radiation that their children would be subjected to.

But a spokesman for Hutchinson 3G said phone masts needed to be so close together because they used low levels of power in response to public concerns about radiation.

He said the emissions from each mast were a small fraction of the universal standards recommended.

He said: "We have to remember that radios, televisions, police CBs, all these devices have some sort of transmitter and aerial. Mobile phone masts are one small component of the radio wave world."