Tories are calling on the Government to ensure all mobile phone masts have to go before planners before they can be built.

At present there is consultation on new masts but many of them can be put up without planning permission unless they are tall or in sensitive areas.

Brighton and Hove City Council Tory opposition leader Brian Oxley, senior Tory councillor Pat Drake and several other leading councillors have raised the issue because of a rash of new masts proposed for the city, many for mobile Internet services.

The councillors said many new masts were proposed for sites near the homes of people who were understandably worried about their health.

They said: "We feel local communities should have the final say over the location of telecommunications masts.

"Councils should be able to determine applications for masts in the same way as other planning applications."

Hove Labour MP Ivor Caplin has welcomed a code of conduct agreed to by four major mobile phone companies over siting masts including making sure they meet international standards.