Villagers are furious that plans for a mast which they had objected to and had been refused by Copeland Council’s planning committee is going ahead following a council error.

Beckermet Parish Council, residents and the village nursery were opposed to an application submitted last August by Arqiva Ltd for “installation of electronic communications apparatus” on the grass verge at Mill Lane.

When it went before Copeland’s planning committee in October, members voted to refuse the application.

Villagers were pleased and thought no more of it until a work team landed yesterday to install the mast. It transpired that the council had failed to reject the application within the allotted time period.

Geoffrey Nugent is chairman of Beckermet Nursery, which is opposite where the mast is being installed.

“People are amazed. This mast - an 11 metre high white pole with a concrete base - is an absolute blight on a lovely grassed area at the entrance to the village.

"There’s a statue of a soldier and daffodils in spring,” said Mr Nugent, who lives nearby.

“It’s a ridiculous place to put it when there are 100 other locations it could have gone other than there. Everyone agrees and was so surprised to see the work going ahead.”

He has contacted Copeland Council and MP Trudy Harrison, calling for them to stop the mast going in.

“I cannot believe the council has been so negligent. There’s no excuse, people are flabbergasted that this has happened,” he said.

Planning and Place Manager Nick Hayhurst said: “This is an unfortunate situation which happened due to a date discrepancy within our systems.

“As a result, the decision to reject was made the day after the allotted time period ended. With this type of ‘prior approval’ application, that means the application has ‘deemed consent’.

“As soon as we were aware of the error, we approached Arquiva Ltd’s agent to discuss possible alternative locations for the mast. However, he has indicated there are technical reasons why this is the best site, and has chosen to continue despite local opposition.

“We are also in contact with the landowners, Cumbria County Council, to see whether they can help remedy the situation.

“We’d like to apologise for the error. This is the first time it has happened, and we can assure people we have changed our procedures to ensure it won’t happen again.”

Nobody from Arqiva Ltd was available to comment.