A city councillor says mobile phone giant Orange has made him feel like a lemon over its latest transmitter mast.

The antenna in Poynings Drive, Hangleton, sprang up only weeks after councillor Peter Willows assured residents it would not go ahead.

Councillor Willows claimed planning officials assured him no masts would be put up in Hangleton without the matter first going forward for public consultation.

The Tory councillor said: "There were originally proposals for masts at three sites in Hangleton so my fellow councillor Mark Barnard and I asked the residents for their opinions.

"They started petitions and collected hundreds of signatures in protest. We presented the petitions to the council and were assured no masts would go up without consultation.

"We in turn assured the people of Hangleton these masts would not go up. In fact Mark Barnard has written to people congratulating them on getting rid of them.

"This makes us look foolish. I've been made to feel like a lemon."

A city council spokesman said confusion may have been caused by a recent change in the law regarding phone masts.

He said: "Coun Willows is quite right that since August 22 we have had a duty to consult local people on receiving notification about plans for masts.

"But what the telecoms companies effectively did was to get as many applications as they could through the system by August 22, and as long as they notified us of their intentions before that date the old regulations applied.

"We have a bit of a backlog of these and indeed this mast did come through before the 22nd. The old rules apply so there's nothing we can do about it."

A spokeswoman for Orange confirmed the company submitted its proposal for an eight-metre mast at Poynings Drive on August 16.

She said: "According to planning legislation at the time, the local planning authority had 42 days to notify Orange of its decision.

"However, Orange can confirm that no written response was received from the local planning authority during this period."