CAMPAIGNERS are claiming a victory over mobile phone company O2 after council bosses threw out plans for a transmitter near a Widnes garden centre.
But protesters still fear the company could try to submit planning applications over Christmas when people are off their guard in a bid to try to 'wear them down' and encourage them to give up the fight against further masts in their area.
They sent objections on the grounds of loss of visual amenity and voiced concerns that pupils walking to school would face added traffic hazards as the mast was to be built on a public footpath.
They claim hundreds of Saints Peter and Paul and Wade Deacon pupils would have had to squeeze their way past the 'obstruction' at least twice a day.
The proposals for the 15m high mast proposals came barely two weeks after the protesters defeated another mast proposal near their homes.
02 gave prior notification of its intention to build a mast at the corner of Birchfield Road and Derby Road, but hundreds of protesters joined forces, placing a banner at the proposed mast location and bombarding Halton Borough Council with objections.
They argued that the combined electromagnetic radiation from three masts across the area could have unknown consequences for their health.
And about two years ago residents living in the vicinity of Widnes Garden Centre managed to block the further expansion of an existing phone mast at the site.
The latest mast location was just a stone's throw away from the previous one.
Phil McClean, of Sandringham Gardens, said: 'This is good news, but I would urge people to be on their guard over the coming months for further planning applications.
'I feel that 02 must need a mast in this area and it looks determined to succeed in this - I think it is trying to wear down the residents. But we won't give up.'
