RESIDENTS of Mawnan Smith were horrified to find that a 45-foot Tetra mast had been erected at a nearby farm last Wednesday - without planning permission or full consultation.

The main topic on the agenda at the meeting of Mawnan parish council, last Thursday, was the police radio mast, with many villagers attending.

One angry resident said: "The people involved have shown contempt for the people of Mawnan and the planning procedures."

The erection of the mast at Treworval Farm comes after months of discussion by councillors, who were considering a proposal for a planning application.

Sarah Mason, clerk for the parish council, said: "The structure is up. As far as I can tell it is not transmitting or emitting any beams at the moment." She said she had spoken to the locations agent, Waldon Telecom - employed by O2 Airwaves (also known as MMO2) - which provides the technology to the Cornwall Constabulary.

"MMO2 say it is a temporary structure while they test the site to see whether the signal is adequate to cover that site and whether it would cover the one at Maenporth," she said. Mrs Mason added that the Tetra mast was actually situated in the parish of Constantine, but the parish council had not been contacted by the company.

Neil Hatton, a member of Kerrier district council planning committee and also Cornwall county council, said the district council had sent a letter to Waldon Telecom, telling them to take the mast down.

Mr Hatton said: "Kerrier district planning sent the enforcement officer out to have a look. It's the proper Tetra mast and a letter of the first stage of enforcement has been sent to the applicants, telling them to take it down. They will either take it down or it will be brought down by the local authority."

He said Waldon has since confirmed that it has received the letter and will now be given 21 days to respond.

Mr Hatton said it was the third time that the company had attempted to erect a mast in the area - the first time was at Meudon Farm, which was council-owned land, and then again at Boskensoe Farm.

"They've done it without the local authorities planning procedures being followed. They said on Friday that it wasn't with their knowledge that the mast had been put up."

He said the issue may now be put in front of Kerrier planning committee, who will consider whether it is in-keeping with the landscape and how intrusive it is to the community.

The main considerations are that it is situated within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and also an Area of Great Landscape Value.

New guidelines mean that they will no longer consider health risks in their decision - that is up to the environmental department. A second meeting was held on Tuesday evening, at Mawnan Smith village community sports hall. This was attended by residents from Mawnan Smith, Constantine, Falmouth and St Keverne.

Members of St Keverne parish have recently been successful in rejecting proposals for a mobile phone mast in their village.

It was raised at the meeting that a 60ft mast had just been put up at Goonhilly Satellite Station, near Helston, with planning permission, which was considered to be the main source of power.

A petition was started against the mast, which could be signed by anyone concerned by it.

However, he said the meeting was obviously one-sided as there was nobody to represent O2 Airwaves or Waldon Telecom.

Yesterday O2 Airwaves were unavailable for comment. n Tetra masts - which stands for terrestrial trunk radio network - are designed as a communications system for police, with the intention of phasing out police radio networks.