FEARS over the potential installation of a second mobile phone mast for Orange on the roof of the police station on Chiswick High Road, were put on hold last week, when the local area committee refused to give permission for it to go ahead.

Residents of Linden Gardens, the closest residential street to the potential site are still concerned, however, that the application from Vodaphone has already received approval.

Ken Mantel, a Linden Gardens resident, said: "We are cautiously delighted. Nevertheless, we are very shocked at the manner in which this all occurred. We were disgusted by the planning officer's comments and comments on paper to the councillors.

"He said the proposed antennae to be installed didn't matter as there were already many antennae on the building.

"I showed clearly to both him and the councillors that there is nothing of the sort there.

"He also said it wouldn't affect the view or outlook for residents, which we again proved to be nonsense."

He explained: "For the first time the Chiswick Area Committee woke up to the fact that they were simply being ignored and bypassed and I showed, during my talk, that they had also been misinformed about policy making.

But he added: "We still have not however resolved the Vodaphone issue, as that was rubber stamped without the Chiswick Area Committee being involved.

"We are still in positive dialogue with Vodaphone and are waiting for their response. We do need to make sure that this is not merely a piric victory."

Cllr Peter Thompson, Chair of the CAC said: "I'm not against mobile phone masts themselves, I'm against them being put in areas that are residential or near schools or hospitals.

"The health argument is not proven yet but there is a potential health risk and we don't know if there is a problem or not, so we need to be cautious.

"Local planning authorities should be allowed to reflect these strongly-held public health concerns about mobile phone masts.

"Yet the present system is stacked against us because applications refused for reasons other than strong planning grounds are likely to be allowed on appeal.

"At the moment I feel that we cannot possibly consider cases appropriately and what's more, we are threatened by possible planning appeal costs!"