Billericay residents were today celebrating after people power forced a phone giant to ditch controversial mast plans.

Residents teamed up to bombard Anglian Water, which owns the site, with letters of objection.

Bosses from the firm came down to look at the land and have now told Mercury it will not allow the development to go ahead.

Terry Dodge, whose home would have been overshadowed by the mast, said he was pleased Anglian Water had listened to local concerns.

He said: "I delivered letters to 400 homes urging my neighbours to object to these plans and we've won the battle.

"The chairman of the residents' association helped us and our county councillor, Angela Watkinson, wrote to both Mercury and Anglian Water so this was a case of people really working together."

Locals had been worried both about the blight on their homes caused by the eyesore mast and the potential health risks.

New European research has recommended transmitters are positioned at least 200 metres from houses because of the links between the signals they give out and diseases such as cancer.

Education secretary David Blunkett recently announced no masts should be put up in school grounds to protect youngsters.

However, Mr Dodge, 52, said the fight wasn't completely over yet. He is concerned Mercury might now turn its attentions to a piece of private land next to the water company's site.

The father-of-two said: "We will be keeping very close tabs on the situation.

"We have a little relief at the moment but we will not be 100 per cent happy until Mercury has gone somewhere else away from houses.

"The piece of private land is even nearer my house than the piece owned by Anglian Water."

The water firm said it had received several letters from concerned locals about the mast proposal.

A spokeswoman said: "They felt the visual impact of the mast would be quite great.

"We took our customers' views into account and felt on balance we should ask Mercury to look elsewhere."

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