00:00, May 25 2005

By Mandy Little, Greenwich Mercury

A PARTIAL victory is being celebrated by campaigners battling to prevent a mobile phone mast being sited near a school for disabled children.

The National Planning Inspectorate has told Greenwich council it must repeat its notification procedure for four mast applications made by O2 close to Charlton School.

The inspectorate agreed with campaigners that the consultation should be widened to make sure that all concerned parties have their say.

The communications giant appealed after the council turned their application down last October.

Residents opposed to the plans set up an action group, Charlton Residents Against the Mast (CRAM), and penned a 15 page letter to the inspectorate complaining about the consultation process.

Although the council fulfilled its legal obligations it initially only notified 67 houses in Charlton Park Road.

This was due to errors with the original application by 02 which failed to recognise the sensitivity of the siting.

A spokesman for the inspectorate said: "We have told the council that they must re-notify just to be sure that all interested parties have had a proper period of time - four weeks to comment.

"Then the appeal will carry on as normal."

Henry Gilbey from CRAM said: "It's a victory for us but we are not stopping here.

"We are pushing to have a full public hearing for the appeals. The issues need to be aired in public."

A spokesman for the council said that more letters will be sent out to a wider consultation area.