PEOPLE campaigning against plans for a phone mast at a Reedley sports club have been dealt a double blow.

Mobile phone company O2 has not only lodged an appeal against Brierfield and Reedley councillors' refusal to give the company permission for a telecommunications base station at Belvedere and Caldervale Sports Club but also submitted a new planning application in the same week.

It is the fourth time plans for a phone mast have been submitted and will be O2's third application despite civic leaders saying they did not want to see another phone mast proposal for the site when they turned down similar schemes in January and November.

Today, Dennis Cannon, chairman of campaign group Together Against Masts, said people living in the Reedley Grove area were 'appalled' by O2's actions.

He said: "This is where it becomes farcical. We have hundreds of people objecting. None of the residents round about want the mast to go there. We are now on the fourth."

He said a new petition would be launched to oppose the latest application.

O2 is appealing against Brierfield and Reedley Area Committee's decision to turn down plans for a 20 metre high slimline mono-pole mast with six antennae and four equipment cabinets in a fenced compound next to the squash club building. The new plans are for a 17.5 metre monopole with six antennae and three cabinets between the two rugby pitches, closer to Borrowdale Drive.

A spokeswoman for O2 said the company had found it difficult to find a suitable location for a phone mast and was concentrating on the Belvedere and Caldervale sports site.

She added: "The use of mobile phones is increasing.

"And people can't expect a mobile phone to work without having a mast."