Members of North Kenilworth Residents Association and local councillors have won the battle to prevent O2 installing a 15-metre phone mast on the corner of Crackley Lane and Coventry Road.

O2 was first stopped in its tracks in May last year when Warwick District Council’s planning committee refused plans for the 15-metre phone mast on the corner of Crackley Lane and Coventry Road.

In August a fresh appeal was launched by O2 but this has now been turned down by the planning inspectorate. If it had been given the go ahead, the mast would have been situated approximately 70m from nearby houses and about 70m from the tennis courts at Kenilworth Tennis Club.

Coun David Shilton, who has been involved with the fight since it started in 2007, said: “We are just delighted. This is fantastic news. We fought hard but proved that we were listened to.”

He added: “If O2 had decided to put the mast a bit further away we’d have had no problem, but they were insistent on that spot and it was simply too close to people’s homes.”

The appeal was dismissed on the grounds that the mast would have an impact on the ‘character and appearance’ of the area. The planning inspectorate also noted that the mast and equipment would introduce an ‘overtly harsh urban feature to the detriment of the lane’s pleasant rustic character’.

Alistair Smith of the North Kenilworth Residents Association has welcomed the news and said it was ‘three cheers and a call for more clarity’. He said: “The North Kenilworth Residents Association wishes to express its relief at the decision by the planning inspector to dismiss the appeal by O2 and to thank all the residents and supporters who have worked so hard to achieve this result.

“We all recognise the need for phone masts. The problem is that the new powers granted to mobile phone companies by the government, for instance the free right to use public verges for masts, leave local councils and residents with little they can do to protect local environments and neighbourhoods when faced with many of these proposals.

“A major difficulty is that the only source of technical information in the planning process for the siting of masts is provided by the telecommunications companies themselves, and we believe that there is an urgent need for an independent body that could scrutinise and assess their claims and advise local councils and their planning committees accordingly.”

Spokesperson for O2, Angela Johnson, said: “Obviously we are disappointed that we lost out on the appeal, but we will be looking for somewhere else in the area.”