ROPLEYÕS Shell service station is among those exposed in the national press as concealing mobile phone masts on their garage forecourts.

Since the revelation that petrol giants Shell and Texaco have been allowed to put up transmitters in price signs without public consultation, both companies have released a list of those service stations involved and the Shell garage on the A31 in Ropley is one of them.

Texaco has masts at 20 filling stations while Shell is said to have transmitters hidden at more than 200 of its 1,100 garages in a lucrative deal with T-mobile.

Manager of the Shell service station at Ropley, Richard Howard, said: ÒShell has never hidden the fact that these masts are installed at various Shell sites.

ÒShell is extremely cautious about the image of its premises, meaning that we cannot even put up new signage without the approval of head office. It would certainly never allow a free-standing mast to be installed.

ÒThe fact that the masts are hidden away inside the price towers is for the sake of aesthetics rather than secrecy. The company is very hot on health and safety issues, and is very careful about everything it does.Ó

According to Mr Howard the mast at Ropley was installed before he took over the site in May 2001, Òbut IÕd guess that whoever was running the site at the time would not have had a choice in the matterÓ, said Mr Howard.

ÒPeople are wary because you are not allowed to use mobile phones on petrol station forecourts. Petrol stations have what we call Ôexplosive zonesÕ, which are the places such as next to the pumps where fumes accumulate.

ÒIt is these areas that electrically operated equipment and naked flames are forbidden, and the price towers are well outside these areas, being right on the periphery of the forecourt.

ÒThe radiation from the masts seems to be the key issue, and this has concerned me in the past, but I trust the experts to say that it is safe. And as I said, health and safety is excellent at Shell, and I trust the company to get it right.Ó

Campaigners, concerned about the safety aspect, claim mobile phone companies are using a legal loophole to put up transmitters without planning permission. This allows equipment less than four metres high to be installed without applying for formal approval of the local authority.

These can then be housed in structures of any height and all that is necessary is a letter to the council notifying them of the move.

RopleyÕs Shell service station would, in the most part, come within the jurisdiction of East Hampshire District Council. But, according to head of planning, Ian Ellis, his department has no record of any letter regarding the installment of a mobile phone mast on the garage forecourt at that premises.

Chairman of the All-Party Mobile Communications Group, Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis has attacked the secrecy surrounding forecourt transmitters.

He is reported as saying: ÒMobile phone companies pledged to observe a strict code of practice over mast siting.

ÒThe first part of this promise was to carry out extensive public consultation over where a mast is sited. The news that hundreds of masts have been secretly sited makes a mockery of this and confirms the publicÕs suspicions of the industry.

ÒIt is essential that all new sites are subject to a complete planning procedure allowing the publicÕs concerns to be heard.Ó