More than 40 million mobile telephones are owned by the British public and each year that figure is likely to increase as more people conduct their business and pleasure on the move.

Last Christmas more than five million mobile phones were bought as gifts and in the year from December 1999 to December 2000, 17 million handsets were bought in Britain.

But there is also a boom in the number of mobile phone masts needed to keep pace with the demand for space on the network. No mobile phone user wants their signal breaking up or to read the words "network busy" on phone displays.

There are currently in the region of 22,000 mobile phone masts in Britain. They are on fire stations, school buildings, lamp posts, camouflaged as pine trees, in and on water towers, chimneys and even churches. Mobile phone companies will put them anywhere they can and often reward the building or landowner financially for their co-operation.

Mobile phone companies believe they need up to 100,000 new masts throughout the country to cope with the ever-increasing demand for network services.

However, there is growing concern over the health risks attached to masts.

Residents across Sussex have battled against masts proposed near their homes or near their schools. Residents near Nevill Road in Hove battled against plans by One2One which wanted to build a mast on a site where there is already a Vodafone mast which they also oppose.

Other more recent mast plans opposed by residents were made in Church Road, Hove, Surrenden Road, Brighton, Fittleworth, near Pulborough, Old Shoreham Road, Hove, Wannock Road, Polegate and Lewes Road, Forest Row.

Mother-of-three Martine Cowley led a campaign against the mast plan in Nevill Road. She said: "We were concerned about the health risks. While there's a doubt, they should not be put up in residential areas. It would be in a residential area and near a school."

Mrs Cowley uses a mobile phone but believes residents and planning authorities should have more power to refuse masts in residential areas.

More than 700 residents signed a petition against the mast but she said many people did not feel they could beat the mobile phone giant.

She said: "We felt powerless. Many felt they couldn't do anything to stop it."

While there is public concern about the safety of such masts, Brighton Pavilion Labour MP David Lepper believes the Government should err on the side of caution about their siting until more research is gathered.

He said: "We all have to accept their use is going to increase. They make life easier for many of us and it would be hypocritical to say no to mobile phones but that should not be the justification for the haphazard development which is going on at the moment. What is the legacy we will be handing on to the future?"

Mr Lepper wants local authorities to have more power to refuse masts.

He said: "At the moment it's a free-for-all. Councils are frustrated they don't have power to prevent them being built - they can only follow the law."

Like any other development, the masts can only be refused if they are in an area of outstanding natural beauty or breach any other planning restrictions.

Some feel the mobile phone firms have the upper hand where the building of masts is concerned.

Currently phone masts less than 15m tall do not need planning permission, although the Government is expected to close this loophole in the near future and demand all masts need full planning permission before being built.

No organisation is currently responsible for collating a database of where masts are sited around the country and any parent, resident or politician who wants to find out where they are in the country is unable to.

Mr Lepper wants firms to be obliged by law to inform a local authority of any masts it builds so a national database of masts can be drawn up.

If a landowner is happy to allow a mobile phone mast on his land and planning permission is sought, a council planning committee cannot turn it down simply because it does not like or want masts in its district. There are strict rules on what basis a council is able to refuse an application.

Mr Lepper said many councils would be reluctant to take the chance of refusing a mast because the firm may go to appeal, win and leave the council with a hefty bill. But some councils have taken a stand against masts by banning them on their own land. Brighton and Hove City Council is continuing to refuse permission for new phone masts on council-owned land.

West Sussex County Council has refused to allow masts to be erected on its land since 1998, although it does have one on its land which is at Forest School, Horsham, which the council says has been inspected and is considered safe.

On Wednesday, Hastings borough councillors unanimously agreed to ban new masts on its property after a controversial application to site one next to a special needs school.

This week Eastbourne Tory MP Nigel Waterson called for every local authority in East Sussex to refuse the building of mobile phone masts on council-owned land. "The masts are visually damaging and there are genuine public concerns over possible health risks.

"Permission should be refused for all new masts on land owned or occupied by the council. School governors should be asked to adopt the council's policy and the schools to be urged to ask the Radiocommunications Agency to check the emissions from any existing masts on their sites."