PHONE masts will need top level approval in future before being allowed on any county council-owned building.

Dorset County Council's cabinet decided that any applications for the masts to be put on their own buildings should be referred to them for decision, rather than to lesser committees.

The ruling follows complaints from staff that they were being made ill by an emergency services Tetra mast near their office windows at the council's Pullman Court site on Weymouth Avenue in Dorchester.

The complaints prompted the council to order a report into the possible side-effects of the mast and the potential risks to staff if the mast was relocated to the inside of flag poles on the roof of County Hall.

The report - from Government radiation experts - found that under normal operating circumstances there was no danger but any staff who regularly went up on the roof would be exposed to unacceptable levels of radiation.

Following the report, council chiefs told telecom operators O2 to find another site for the mast, which remains on Dorchester police station after a Government planning inspector found in favour of the company.

The cabinet's ruling comes despite recommendations from the council's joint health, safety and welfare committee that there be an outright ban on all telecom masts at council sites until 'unequivocal evidence is produced to demonstrate that there are no safety risks involved.'

Speaking in support of the recommendation, Councillor David Crowhurst said: "This committee is a joint committee with staff representatives. They have enormous concerns about the effects of these masts.

"As a cabinet they have asked us to support their concern about the siting of the mast."

But Councillor Toni Coombs said any pre-emptive ban on these masts may fall foul of planning laws. She added: "There have been many cases in the country where authorities have used the precautionary principle and had it thrown back at them - it just doesn't wash with the planning inspector."