A petition has been set up to combat plans to extend a phone mast near two schools in Croxley Green.

CTIL and Vodafone have submitted plans to extend their existing phone 12m mast in Baldwins Lane to 15m tall and put in an additional equipment cabinet at the site.

Almost 100 people have signed the petition. The mast is near to St Oswald's Pre-school and Malvern Way Infant and Nursery School.

The petition by Marie Calderan objects to the extension on the grounds of its location, size, the hazard it will be to motorists, what it will look like, the effect it will have on nearby properties and health grounds.

It reads: “The existing mast and its cabinets are already posing a safety hazard to pedestrians and children making their way to school by obstructing the views of residents wanting to reverse safely out of their property and oncoming traffic turning either into Baldwins Lane or Lancing Way.

“There has been at least two serious accidents at that junction in the past due to poor visibility from oncoming traffic”.

“The proposed upgrade of the base station is in a residential area full of families with children, very close to Malvern Way Infant and Nursery School and St Oswald’s pre-school.

“We do not yet know the impact of such technology on our long-term health and more studies are needed to look at the impact of long-term daily exposure in such close proximity to those masts.”

But Telefonica has argued the mobile phone coverage in Croxley Green needs to be improved- a claim disputed by the petition.

Ilana Clark, community liaison officer at CTIL said: “Vodafone and Telefonica customers expect to be able to use their mobiles and devices where they live, work and travel.

“Base stations are low powered devices which cover approximately half a mile in radius, therefore we have to put base stations close to our customers.

“We have identified that we need to improve the coverage to our customers in Croxley Green and have proposed an upgrade to an existing base station at Baldwins Lane."