A network provider planning to erect a new mobile phone mast in Gorleston has said residents could be left without coverage if the bid is refused.

EE is proposing to put up a 19-metre high mast on Lowestoft Road, next to the Newberry Child Development Centre and near St Peter’s Catholic Church and Stradbroke Primary Academy.

The mast, providing signal for voice calls as well as 3G and 4G data use, would replace an existing EE installation at Humberstone House on England’s Lane.

The applicant is planning to remove the mast because of structural issues with the building.

If the new mast is not approved, the application states, residents might be left without mobile coverage for EE after the old mast is demolished.

A supporting document says the existing streetlights - all seven metres high - on Lowestoft Road would reduce the prominence of the mast and “ensure its visual impact is minimised” while trees along the road would “provide an excellent backdrop and a degree of screening”.

The application also notes the perception that exposure to radio waves, from mobile phones and masts, may pose a health risk, but that the “balance of evidence suggests this is not the case”.