A MOBILE phone mast, antennae and dishes planned for green belt land are set to be thrown out because it would be an 'alien feature' in the countryside.

Orange wants to site a seven-metre slimline lattice tower, six antennae and four dishes and ten cabins within a fenced compound at Shuttleworth Pumping Station off Rochdale Road, Edenfield.

The engineering and planning sub-committee which meets on Tuesday will be told the agents acting for Orange have identified eight possible options for siting mast and base stations in the Edenfield, but the operator favours Shuttleworth Pumping Station.

A report from officers says: "The application site is located in an elevated position on rising ground adjacent to Rochdale Road and opposite a cluster of residential property on the north side of Rochdale Road.

"The prominent location of the proposed mast and base station in open countryside and would have an adverse impact on the openness of the Green Belt and introduce an alien feature into an open upland landscape where built development is otherwise sparse."

"The applicant has submitted no substantive evidence to the effect that alternative sites investigated wither result in a more visually prominent development or are unsuitable in technical terms.

"The applicant has submitted no supporting information upon the issue of site selection to justify the choice of this site over and above other less visually obtrusive choices."

They will be told in the absence of no 'very special circumstances' the application should be refused because it is within Green Belt land.