A LEADING campaigner against the Orange telecommunications mast at Balksbury Hill has called on Test Valley Borough Council to revoke planning permission. Mrs Jennifer Johnson said that protesters had investigated the possibility of revoking planning consent and discovered that it could be done. She said: "On behalf of residents and members of the campaign I formally request Test Valley Borough Council to revoke permission." The council, she added, should stand up to Orange and defend its constituents and its own authority as a local government body. But chief planner Madalene Winter has replied saying that revocation is only available on planning permission granted. In this case, however, planning permission was not granted. Orange won the right to build the mast because they did not receive the refusal notice within the stipulated 56 days. She says in a letter to Mrs Johnson: "All available options were considered in January/February when the error was discovered." The council considered the possibility of making a direction under the regulations relating to the 56-day limit. But Mrs Winter added: "However, it was considered that there was no reasonable prospect of success.

"This process is available, via the approval of the Secretary of State, but is not likely to succeed in a case in which it would be clear that the council was attempting to rectify its own failure to act within the prior notification period."