A dad has won his fight to prevent a mobile phone mast being built yards from his home.

Colin Gardner mounted a protest fearing radiation from the One 2 One mast would affect his son Joshua, three, who has Kawasaki's disease. The illness which attacks children's immune systems can lead to heart disease.

But council planners have rejected the scheme at Hole Farm, Dimples Lane, Haworth, through the site being a special landscape area and having links with the Bronts.

This week Mr Gardner, pictured, sent a special message of thanks to all who joined the campaign including Oxenhope Parish Council and the Bront Society.

The planning department decision comes as national calls were made to tighten planning regulations for mobile phone masts.

Currently full planning permission is not required. All a company has to do is issue a prior notice which could just be a notice posted several yards from the site.

The recent Stewart Report calls for local authorities to have full control over the masts with tighter controls. The Stewart Report will give residents some clout to fight future battles if it is approved by the Government.

Cononley villagers also feared for their health when Vodaphone applied to erect a mast in Highgate Poultry farm.

Craven planning officers rejected it on the grounds that it would "interfere with peoples enjoyment of their dwellings".

One 2 One and Vodaphone are not yet defeated and were considering alternative sites for their masts in Haworth and Cononley.

* Scientific studies into whether radiation emissions from masts are harmful are so far inconclusive.

The National Radiological Protection Board, a Government body set up to study this, has neither proved they are harmful nor safe.

A 1999 article in 'The New Scientist' by David Concar, describing various laboratory tests on microwave effects also proves inconclusive.

In fact the same experiment at different laboratories have had opposite results. For example one test proved waves speed up brain activity while another showed them to be slowed down.

Scientists continue to look into the effects and a recent report suggests mobile phones themselves could be more harmful to children.

Without solid evidence health scares are no defence against mast applications.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.