A MOBILE phone company must say what it will do to keep the local badger population happy before it can put up a mast disguised as a tree.

Orange wants to install a 25-metre mast disguised as 'slim line conifer tree' at the edge of a wood in a designated Special Wildlife Site near Leominster.

The proposed mast, at Bowley Court Farm, Hope-under-Dinmore, is needed to improve mobile phone reception in the Hope and Bodenham areas, the company says. Councillors agreed to impose a condition on behalf of Mother Nature following a plea from their staff ecologist. The expert called for special badger-friendly measures at the site.

"A mitigation strategy for the protection of badgers shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the local planning authority prior to any development commencing," Orange was told.

The condition was imposed to protect the ecology of the area, said the planners.

Two residents at the nearby hamlet of Newton objected to the mast. They claimed it would have a detrimental impact on the area. There was another local mast which could be shared, they said.