CONTROVERSIAL plans to install three new mobile phone masts next to a Bromsgrove primary school have been approved.

Planning chiefs granted mobile phone giant Vodafone permission for the masts at the telephone exchange in Hannover Street, near to St John's First School.

The application was temporarily shelved after a meeting at the school which saw parents, governors and local residents meet with the owners of the exchange, National Grid Wireless, to raise their concerns about the project.

Among their worries were health and safety issues. Vodafone agreed to defer the application so that it could hold a further meeting to explain its need for the masts.

However, it was decided that an alternative site on farmland on the Kidderminster Road could not be used as Vodafone said that such a location would be too far west to give the town centre the required coverage it needed. The scheme was finally approved at Monday's meeting of Bromsgrove District Council's planning committee.

Committee chairman, Councillor Dennis Norton (Con-St Johns), said: "We have held meetings with the phone company and people were invited to put across their points of view.

"They also held drop-in sessions, so they have acted quite fairly and there has been a proper consultation.

"The instructions and advice that we get from the government is that there is no evidence that these phone masts have an affect on health, so we accepted it for approval."