Most people use mobile phones but understandably they don't want the masts for them anywhere near their homes or schools.

Masts are stark and ugly. There is also a worry that emissions from them could cause health problems, although this has not been proven.

It's hard for councils like Brighton and Hove to stop the spread of masts. It has banned any more on its own land and buildings but has no powers over others, unless they are exceptionally high or in particularly beautiful areas.

Mobile phone companies are getting wise to this and are putting in small masts all over the city which do not need planning permission.

You'd think it would be simple for the council to produce a map showing where all the masts are in Brighton and Hove.

All it needs is for someone to put a few dozen dots in the right places on a map but the authority says it would be a huge task which it cannot complete.

Such a map would provide ammunition for any case the council might care to submit to the Government for a change in policy on mobile masts.

There's no way mobile phones are going to disappear now that three quarters of the population has access to them.

But there's every reason to formulate a careful policy in Brighton and Hove, not to mention the rest of the country, to keep them as far away from people's homes as possible.

It does not look as if the doubts over health risks will be easily resolved for a long time. While they exist, we should take great care over where masts are sited.