A MOTHER who refuses to use a mobile for fear of radiation is furious a phone mast could be sited just yards from her front door, next to a school playing field.

Jessica Williams has accused phone giants Vodafone and O2 of trying to fool residents by calling the planned pylon a “monopole” on planning applications.

The North Finchley resident, who refuses to use a mobile and will not let her 14-year-old son have one, said the site of the mast is right next to playing fields for the Wren Academy in Woodhouse Road.

She told the Times Series: “In the planning document they say they’ve consulted with local residents. But that’s not the case.

“No-one around here had heard anything of it until the council put the planning application through our door. Most people threw it away as it calls it a monopole, but I realised it’s actually a mast.”

The 46-year-old, whose youngest son is autistic, says she fears the mast will subject her family to constant doses of radiation, despite her choice not to have a phone.

She added: “I’ve done some research and I can’t find a single study which says there is guarantee phone masts don’t cause long term damage. Most say children are most susceptible to it.

“I’m surprised they’re asking to put it next to a school playing field, Barnet apparently don’t usually allow them on school grounds, so having one right next to it is no different.

“If this goes through we will be subjected to the radiation 24-hours-a-day. Before we moved here three years ago I drove around all the local streets to check whether there was a mast.”

Mrs Williams now has a petition with more than 200 names on it against the plans, and has vowed to fight them all the way to a planning committee.

A joint statement from the two phone companies said the mast was necessary to improve mobile coverage in the area and was being shared to reduce the overall number of base stations needed.

It added: “We have identified that we need to improve the 3G coverage to our customers in Barnet and have proposed a shared base stations on Woodhouse Road.

“We recognise that some communities are concerned regarding the deployment of radio base stations close to residential areas but without radio base stations, mobile phones will not be able to work.

“ All of our base stations are designed, built and operated in accordance with stringent international guidelines laid down by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.

“ The adoption of these guidelines has the formal backing of independent bodies such as the World Health Organisation. Typical public exposures from our base stations will be many hundreds, if not thousands, of times below these guidelines.”