Phone mast plan fury residents in blockade

Furious residents created a blockade to stop engineers erecting a 75-foot mobile phone mast.

Around 20 residents spent yesterday blocking the entrance to the building site of a new mosque on Trafalgar Road in Smethwick.

In the stand-off, which lasted much of the day, a car was also used to prevent the articulated lorry which carried the mast and a crane accessing the site. The lorry left later on in the afternoon. The residents say the T-mobile mast would be just yards from their homes.

They also claim they had not been told about the planned structure and that a planning application was only made to the council yesterday morning – the same day it was due to be erected.

Sandwell Councillor Mohammed Rouf who is a member of the Smethwick Pakistani Muslims Association, said: "There are masts like these all over the place which often go unnoticed. They do not need planning permission before they put up the mast."