CONSERVATIONISTS and residents have clashed over plans by British Telecom to erect a telecommunications tower at the beauty spot of Farndale, famed for its daffodils.

The North York Moors National Park authority is being recommended to approve the 15 metre monopole, with antennae and a microwave dish and equipment cabin, at Cote Hill Farm, Farndale.

But objectors have told the authority: "Farndale is a very special place. If this mast goes ahead it will spoil the dale".

They are also objecting on health grounds, because of the fears of risk to residents from electromagnetic radiation.

But supporters said: "Many of the people objecting are from holiday cottages or people who do not live or work in the dale. The objectors are not from the farming community.

"Farndale cannot be put in a goldfish bowl or exclude residents from receiving modern and potentially life-saving techniques."

Supporters say rural crime has increased by 30 per cent this year and that has underlined the need for high-tech communications for the police.

The Council for the Protection of Rural England says that even though the mast is for emergency services rather than commercial use, it should not be allowed if it is intrusive.

"Farndale is a very sensitive location and we feel a solution should be based on siting the equipment cabins near to farm buildings and a single pole should be put in a nearby small area of woodland".

BT says the mast will be a public safety radio communication which needs to be connected to its ground based network to link with the 80 similar sites to provide radio coverage over 98 per cent of roads in North Yorkshire.

"As an underground link would involve excavating, back-filling and assocociated closures of the narrow Farndale roads for the 11 kilometres to Kirkbymoorside, at a cost of £250,000, a microwave link has been selected as the preferred option. The cost of a fibre-optic link would be prohibitively expensive it added.

Val Dilcock, the park's chief planning officer said the principle of the development had been agreed last August.

"The key issue is now whether the additional visual impact from a flat panel microwave dish is acceptable while taking into account the costs and disturbance which would arise from the fibre-optic link".

She said the impact of the monopole would be "very modest"