A MUM is taking matters in her own hands in a bid to remove a mobile phone mast near her home.

Mary Harding lost a battle to stop T-Mobile putting up a 3G antenna at the clubhouse of Bolton Cricket Club, whose grounds back on to her house.

She collected a 100-name petition among neighbours when plans for the mast were revealed in 2005.

Mrs Harding, aged 43, of Bishops Close, Great Lever, tested the emissions of the mast before it went live the following year, using an electro-smog detector.

The hand-held machine detects emissions from wireless communication devices, such as mobile phone masts, mobile phones and digital cordless phones.

No emissions were recorded.

But since the mast went live, Mrs Harding said her detector has been picking up emissions in her back garden and in the back bedroom of the house where her six-year-old son Christopher sleeps.

In an attempt to protect Christopher's health, Mrs Harding, a payroll assistant, has bought a £250 net curtain which blocks the radiation.

And she only allows him to play in the back garden for half-an-hour at the time.

"I just don't trust the emission levels," she said.

Anthony Axford, Chairman of the cricket club, in Green Lane, Great Lever, said the club needs the income from the mast in order to survive. He said: "We don't make any profits from the mast. We plough all the money back into to the club."

A spokesman for T-Mobile said: "In order to test the level of radio frequency which is present all around us from TV and radio transmissions, household devices and our equipment, scientists use highly sensitive professional equipment rather than the devices which we believe are available to purchase online from various campaigning groups.

"The government regulator of telecoms, Ofcom, has undertaken more than 500 surveys at specific sensitive locations with mobile phone masts in close proximity, and each one found the levels to be many times beneath the cautious safety guidelines laid down by International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection."