RESIDENTS will have to put up with a 12.5 metre phone mast because of a council blunder.

The giant phone mast in Warren Road, Brighton, will be installed despite council officers deciding to deny planning permission to telecommunications companies CTIL, Vodafone and Telefonica UK planning permission.

The mast will be built because council officials failed to inform the applicants of their decision within the eight week deadline.

Neighbours now set to be living under the pole have labelled the council "useless" over the incident while planning committee chairwoman Julie Cattell has apologised for the "terrible oversight".

The council’s planning team received the application for the communications mast on the pavement between 86 and 88 Warren Road, Brighton, on March 29.

Three residents, the Woodingdean Tenants and Residents Association and ward councillor Dee Simson all objected to its installation citing health impact, the risk to highway safety and it visual impact.

A previous application from 2007 had been rejected on appeal.

Council officers agreed with objectors that the pole was inappropriate because its "form, height, siting and design would represent an alien feature within its surroundings".

They wrote to the applicants setting out grounds for refusal on what they believed was the 56th and last permissible day of May 23.

But the application had been sitting on the council's post room for five days before being passed on to the planning team meaning the refusal was issued beyond the legal deadline.

This meant that the phone mast was deemed to have received consent.

The council uncovered the error in an investigation launched after work installing the mast began last week.

Doreen Saunders, 72, lives in Warren Avenue and objected to the planning application.

She said: "They are useless, like with many other things.

"I know they have to make cutbacks but I think the cutbacks are now getting a bit too much.

"I know we need these poles but they should not put them on a main road or right by a school.

"We don't know if we will have health problems from it, that has never been explained to us, but when we look out the window it will be right there in front of us."

Cllr Cattell said: “I’m very sorry for the delay that occurred and I apologise to Woodingdean residents who opposed the mast and who took the time to make their views known to us.

“I have taken this up with senior staff at the council and although this will be of little comfort with regards to this case, this terrible oversight has resulted in the council’s procedures being changed to reduce, as far as possible, a repeat of this very unfortunate situation.”