A CONTROVERSIAL police radio mast will be allowed to remain at Lyme Regis Golf Club - despite a desperate bid by members to bunker it.

The 60ft high TETRA mast sparked massive controversy when it was first put up at the links course on Timber Hill earlier this year.

Members of the district council's development control west committee were told last week that the temporary aerial now required planning permission because owners Airwave MMO2 Ltd want to continue testing it for another year.

Supporting the application senior planning officer Andrew Jordan said the mast was pretty well screened with tall trees. Its position, between the 17th ands 18th fairways, was not unacceptably intrusive within the locality.

But the committee heard that Lyme Regis Town Council opposed the mast.

It said the site was "outside the defined development boundary in an area of outstanding natural beauty and would be detrimental to the amenity of neighbouring properties."

Several members of the golf club then lined up to take a swing at the application.

Derrick Gatley, 78, whose home is next to the course, said he represented several objectors. The mast had been there since April when he claimed that MMO2 was given permission to put it up by the club chairman without any reference to the members who owned the land. There had been no consultation about it with residents in Timber Hill who had not been given any opportunity to object, he said.

Its appearance was totally unacceptable and a noisy electric generator was attached to it. He feared it could become a permanent fixture.

A member of the golf club for 17 years and an ex club-captain, Mr Gatley also expressed concerns about the health risks that the mast and its powerful microwaves posed.

Golfer Brian Thornber said he entirely agreed: "You have to walk past it every time your play," he said. "We now have four masts in this area."

Mr D M Scott of Timber Hill, said Lyme Regis Golf Club was sited in probably the most beautiful part of England with spectacular views over the whole of Lyme Bay.

"This is no place for provocative structures - it represents an act of vandalism contrary to planning policy," he said.

Health fears were also expressed by Action Forum of Lyme Regis and Uplyme. And people's finances could suffer, too, they stressed - because masts reduced property values by 20 per cent.

Committee chairman Coun Owen Lovell, a Lyme ward representative, said he understood the operators were looking eventually to site the TETRA mast with an existing mobile phone mast nearby. In that case he felt they should be allowed to keep it in its present location for testing purposes for a further nine months.

Coun Tim Harries said he was "sick and tired" of people putting in retrospective applications. "They should know better," he said.

Coun Nicholas Patmore said siting the "visually intrusive" mast there was going against everything they were trying to do on the world heritage coast.

Coun Lovell had to use his casting vote in favour of allowing the mast to remain for nine months, members having tied 4-4.