A Clevedon community has launched a protest campaign after plans to install a mobile phone mast were revealed.

Residents in Linkside are opposing the location of a mobile phone mast that Vodafone and O2 want to install on a neighbouring piece of land at Clevedon Golf Club.

They believe it will harm the landscape while Hazel Russell, whose home is one of the closest to the site, is worried it could increase the rate of growth of her brain tumour.

She said: “I am an 82-year-old woman with a slow-growing brain tumour living very near the proposed mast site.

“I am fearful and very concerned that the tumour’s growth will speed up by radiation rays emitted by the mast.

“Please re-site the mast away from us and other residential areas.”

A statement from other Linkside residents added: “We are all strongly opposed to the siting of this base mast being so close to our houses, which would be 22 metres high to the bottom of the antennae.

“Apart from the obvious health risks, it would be an eyesore and spoil the environment.”

Vodafone says it has to install a mast to improve the mobile signal strength in the area, but has moved to ease the residents’ health worries.

A spokesman said: “We understand some people have concerns about mobile phone masts in the community, but because they are so low-powered we have to locate them where people use their phones and other devices.

“Despite an enormous amount of independent research stretching back many decades, there is no substantiated evidence of any adverse health effects from mobile phone masts to any sector of the population, whether young or old.”