Residents living close to a cluster of phone masts have demanded an investigation after it was revealed five people in one street have been diagnosed with cancer.

A water tower in Great Burches Road, Thundersley, is home to 25 phone masts. Homeowners in nearby Prestwood Close claim that they are suffering because of the effects of the microwaves emmited from the masts.

Robert Mitchell, 60, and his wife Sue, 58, lost their daughter Stella, 32, eighteen months ago to cancer leaving them to help bring up her two children Megan, 12, and Jack, four, with their father, Dean, 31. Mrs Mitchell said: "Stella hated those masts and she was worried that they affected people's health."

Mr Mitchell said: "It seems a bit strange that there are about 15 houses in that close and five or six people have been diagnosed."

Another Prestwood Close resident, Jill Cox, 52, lives with her husband and two of her three children and was diagnosed with breast cancer last September.

She said: "It would be reassuring if tests could be done."

Residents say there have been three other cases of cancer in the close and another resident, Maureen Steele blames the masts for her grandson Daniel Ratcliff's diagnosis of Auto-Immune Neutropenia, a low white blood count, when he was just one-year-old.

Councillors recently voted to reject plans by Vodafone to place three new 3G antenna, two dishes and a radio cabinet equipment on to the water tower site.

Dr Julie Sharp, Senior Cancer Information Officer at Cancer Research UK, says: "If a cluster of people in the same area all have cancer it does not necessarily mean that all the cases were caused by the same thing. In 2000 an independent report concluded there is no general risk to the health of people living near base stations."