WORCESTER City Council is on a collision course with a mobile phone company after it put up a mast under cover of darkness without planning permission.

Principal planning officer Peter Yates says they had not received an application for the site on Tolladine Golf Course on which Vodafone has erected its mast and added there was a history of permission being turned down in the area.

Residents overlooking the course say the mast includes a generator that keeps them awake at night.

"I can categorically say this mast has not got approval," said Mr Yates.

"The complainants are correct and it's a real problem. I'm urgently trying to contact Vodafone to find out what's going on.

"I must say, Vodafone have behaved impeccably in the past in Worcester, but I'm completely dismayed that they have gone ahead and put up this mast up without permission."

Mr Yates said another mobile telephone company had been refused permission to erect a mast on the same spot.

He said: "Two years ago the city council turned down an appeal from the mobile company 3. The appeal was also refused, so the mast never went up.

"The inspector gave an alternative for a mast to be disguised like a tree further down the hill on the golf course and that is there today."

Mr Yates added Vodafone had taken down a mast that had gone up without planning permission in Claines Lane.

He said: "I do believe that was a genuine mistake and Vodafone acted very responsibly and took it down.

"I am trying to get in contact with the company because it gives me great cause for concern."

Residents overlooking the course say the mast went up under cover of darkness and the noise of the generator was keeping them awake at night.

Jane Frapwell, spokeswoman for Vodafone, said the company was proposing putting in a planning application for a mast designed as a tree on the golf course.

She added: "We are still discussing the exact place for it before starting the planning process.

"In the meantime, we have put a temporary mast on a trailer so we can have coverage in that area and we did ask for consent for that."