Pen and paper are the latest weapons in the campaign against an Otley telephone mast.

Councillor Nigel Francis - who is leading the fight against the mobile communications mast - is urging residents to write letters of protest.

Coun Francis (Ind, Danefield) suggested at a public meeting in Otley Civic Centre that residents contact the shareholders of the Wharfedale Farmers Auction Mart, off Leeds Road, where the mast is being built to find out if they are aware of potential health risks from the mast.

He also encouraged residents to lobby Leeds City Council to say that there was no thorough public consultation about the mast. He claims that only one sign informing residents that the mast was to be erected was posted - on a two-foot high pole on private land.

Adam Pritchard, prospective Conservative candidate for Leeds North West, who is backing the campaign, also pledged to request a meeting with the mobile phone company One to One. Councillor Phil Coyne (Lab, Otley and Wharfedale), who sits on Leeds area planning committee, said: "We are not empowered to stop these masts. There were two notification signs posted and had I received dozens of objection letters I could not have done a thing. The masts are not subject to normal planning applications."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.