TAUNTON residents are livid because a mobile phone mast, thought to have had planning consent denied, is being built.

Mobile phone service provider O2 sent workmen to Shoreditch Road to start work on the 15-metre mast on Tuesday morning.

Surprised homeowners told engineers work could not continue because Taunton Deane Council had refused permission for the mast in February.

O2 denied this and told the workmen to continue.

But a spokesperson for the council said: "The planning authority at the council refused consent to O2's request for the erection of a telephone mast at Shoreditch Road on February 14, 2005."

For the full story, see this week's Somerset County Gazette.