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Orange is offering villagers in South Staffordshire £3,000 a year if they allow a mast to be set up on their land.

The firm has written to homes in two Essington streets making the rent offer in a bid to find out who owns nearby farm land.

Essington already has 28 masts and base stations and an action group has been set up to fight applications for more. Orange is now eyeing up vacant land behind Sneyd Lane which does not belong to the local authority. Letters have gone to Sneyd Lane and Bursnips Lane homes.

The move has angered campaigners, who are urging residents to think carefully before agreeing to have a mast so near to their house.

Councillor David Clifft, chairman of Essington Parish Council, said: “I am deeply concerned by the way in which Orange has approached this matter.

“I have been passed a number of copies of the letter from residents who are all very alarmed and upset at the possible intent of the company.

“I would urge anyone who is considering this proposal to think very carefully about the impact it would have upon themselves, their neighbours and properties in the area.

“It seems that Orange will go to any lengths to obtain land on which to install their mast, including residential gardens.”

The village already has nearly 30 phone masts and base stations, and councillors said there was a “constant threat” of more being installed.

A spokeswoman from Lambert Smith Hampton, working on behalf of Orange, confirmed the company was looking to install new equipment on vacant farm land behind Sneyd Lane and not back gardens.

In 2000 the Stewart Report, a study commissioned by the Department of Health, said that children might be more vulnerable to the small levels of radiation from mobile phones as they have thinner skulls and a developing nervous system.

 But the study did not find a definite link between mobile phones and brain tumours or other serious disease.

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