MOBILE phone company O2 has plans to erect a new mast within yards of homes and a school in North Malvern.

The firm has put in a planning application to erect the mast by the side of Leigh Sinton Road, just south of its junction with Yates Hay Road.

The proposed mast is sited on a grass verge that separates the main road from a slip road that services nearby houses.

The site is only feet away from these houses, and about 50 yards from Dyson Perrins High School.

The plan, submitted by O2's agents Savills, shows a slimline mast disguised as a wooden telegraph pole, with no visible antennas, and with an equipment cabinet at its base. The mast is 12.5 metres tall and the plan shows the cabinet is to be concealed behind bushes.

It is intended to improve coverage to nearby houses, and to the development at North Site, which is not yet built.

The application includes information about alternative sites for the mast that O2 has looked at, but has found not satisfactory. These include the towers of the old and new fire stations in the Link, the BBC mast on North Hill and the Vodafone mast at Link Way. None of them gave full coverage of the area the mast is intended to serve.

An inquiry was also made about putting an antenna on the main building of Dyson Perrins High School, but that fell foul of Worcestershire County Council's policy forbidding phone masts on school grounds.

The plan is now available to view at the contact centre in Malvern Library, and on the council's website. Its reference number is 07/00638.