North Yorkshire MP Phil Willis today launched a national Internet petition calling for tough new mobile phone mast regulations.

The Liberal Democrat MP said Ministers had ignored expert advice on the issue.

Mr Willis, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said: "All that campaigners want is a planning system which is understandable.

"At present the system is biased towards mobile phone companies.

"I urge all campaigners to join forces and sign up to the petition.

"The Government must be made to realise that people are being forced to suffer phone masts within feet of their homes and their children's schools."

The Internet petition can be found at:

www.freespace.virginnet.co.uk/

mast.action/

Local campaigners gave a cautious welcome to news of the petition.

Tom George, who runs T&JR newsagents in Beckfield Lane, Acomb, York, campaigned to stop a ten-metre mast being erected near his shop and within yards of many homes.

He got hundreds to sign a petition, but their fight was lost.

He said: "It's too late for us on this street. But it's good news for other people and is certainly a step in the right direction."

Fellow York resident Shirley Nelson, fighting to stop the erection of a mast in James Street, off Lawrence Street, York, said: "It's a start to getting things changed. We still don't really know the potential dangers of these masts and we need much stricter controls."

Updated: 11:03 Wednesday, April 25, 2001