PLANS for a mobile phone mast close to a 1,500-pupil Bolton school's playing fields have been scrapped after teachers raised health fears.

Councillors overwhelmingly rejected proposals for a 15-metre mast in Great Oak Farm, off Oaks Lane in Bradshaw, to which nearby Canon Slade School and residents had objected.

Deputy headmaster David Lever welcomed the councillors' decision yesterday to heed worries about the uncertain impact of mobile masts.

He said: "We have seen all the recent publicity and we were concerned about the setting so close to the school playing fields.

"We are obviously concerned about the safety of our pupils and while there's a degree of uncertainty we are pleased it has been turned down."

Cllr Norman Critchley spoke against the plan by Dolphin Communications, which he pointed out was also near Birtenshaw Hall School.

He said: "It's near two schools and there's no justification for it. It would have a major visual impact and it would have an affect on both schools."

Cllr Critchley added that the Great Oak Farm was under a covenant protecting it from building.

One resident of Laburnum Park, off Oaks Lane, said: "If this had been approved I would have tried to contact parents at the school to tell them just how close this mast would be to the school."

But Cllr Laurie Williamson suggested concerns about mobile phones may be exaggerated.

He said: "It's near a secondary school which is of course a fascinating fact because 80 per cent of pupils will be in much more danger from their own mobile phones.

"We don't know whether there's a health hazard with masts or not. The last advice we had was that it was non-existent."

Thornleigh Salesian College head teacher Mervyn Williams voiced his worries about a mobile phone mast at Astley Bridge Cricket Club near to the school.

That mast was approved in the face of objections from the school and 50 residents. But the cricket club promised the mast would be safe.