NEW mobile phone masts and dishes will appear on a water tower at Starling after residents failed to stem the flow.

Nine old antennae will be replaced and five dishes erected on the 65-ft tower behind homes in Cockey Moor Road.

A new cabin will also be installed at the base, after approval was given at a meeting of Bury Council's planning control committee on Tuesday. The changes will allow operator O2 to join Vodafone and T-Mobile in operating services from the site.

Letters of objection were sent by a several households, with concern about a lack of maintenance of the site, loss of visual amenity and health fears.

Cockey Moor Road resident Brian Sharples said that not enough was known about the impact of so many masts on human health. He said: "At what point can we eventually say that enough is enough? Can we be sure that another five, ten or 15 masts will make no difference to our health at all?"

Mr Sharples added that past promises of screening had not materialised.

Councillor Dot Cassidy agreed. She said: "How many of these masts are we going to keep having? There are more and more coming into areas and they look terrible. I will not be voting for this."

However the majority of councillors voted in favour after being told there were no material reasons to refuse the application.