A COUNCILLOR has accused a Premiership football club of putting sponsorship deals before the needs of a village.

Hurworth parish councillor Peter Foster made his comments in connection with a proposed mobile phone mast for Vodafone at Middlesbrough FC's training ground, Rockliffe Park in Hurworth Place, on the outskirts of Darlington.

Coun Foster said he was initially surprised that the club favoured the plan. But he said: "Then I realised mobile phone companies sponsor football clubs, so they will want to keep them happy."

However, a Middlesbrough FC spokesman said that Vodafone sponsors Manchester United, and that Middlesbrough doesn't have a sponsor and is currently looking for a new one.

"Vodafone approached us to see if we could site a mast on Rockliffe Park and we agreed permission," he said. "We have always tried to be good neighbours to the Hurworth community."

The mast is needed to improve network coverage for rail passengers travelling on the nearby East Coast Mainline. Coun Foster says it should be positioned elsewhere, where it would not be such a blot on the landscape.

Five years ago villagers protested about plans for a mast at the community centre. It was eventually placed a mile-and-a-half away near the railway line, which Coun Foster thinks would be a better place for the new 25m Vodafone mast.

He said: "The village won't benefit from this. It's for people on the trains and there are other masts they could hang it from. No-one has been able to prove that there is no radiation from these masts."

Darlington Borough Council has given villagers more time to express their views after some complained they had not been made aware of the mast.

Protestors have put up posters around the village urging people to write to the council objecting to the scheme. Letters addressed to the Planning Department, Town Hall, Darlington DL1 5QT must be received by the end of June. The application will be considered in July.