THERE are two solutions to the growing problem of phone masts appearing all over York.

1. Try to persuade the Government to insist that the phone companies requesting masts share them instead of being allowed to each have as many as they like. They could also insist that the phone masts are incorporated into lamp posts so one mast serves many functions.

2. All York residents could recognise the reality that the reason phone companies want to put masts all over the place is because we all insist on having more mobile phones that can transmit ever larger volumes of information more quickly. If we weren't allowing ourselves to be persuaded we have a desperate need to send each other photographs of ourselves coming out of pubs or standing in front of historic objects we would not need ever more powerful masts capable of receiving and transmitting this data.

If we could resist the sales pitch that we all need to watch football matches on a screen two centimetres square, or surf the Internet while walking through the city streets, the mast proliferation would cease overnight.

As someone sitting on the planning committee I can confirm that none of the councillors of any party are happy to see more and more masts, but it's not up to councillors. It's up to all of us as citizens to resist the hard sell.

If we don't there really is no point whinging on about it.

Coun Christian Vassie,

Blake Court,

Wheldrake, York.

Updated: 10:40 Friday, January 21, 2005