PARISHIONERS are being urged to boycott church pews following the Church of England's decision to encourage the installation of mobile phone masts on its towers.

The Archbishops' Council of the Church has struck a deal allowing Quintel S4 to install masts on behalf of mobile phone operators in the spires and towers of parish churches all over the country.

The deal gives Quintel S4 access to about 5,000 Church of England churches which have expressed an interest as potential sites for hidden aerials.

Other churches from a stock of 16,000 will be able to join the scheme if they want - and those that do could receive up to £10,000 a year.

But last night, protest group Mast Sanity criticised the decision and said the Church of England had put money before people's lives.

Although no definite health problems have been confirmed following research into mobile phone masts, neither has a link with cancer been disproved.

Lisa Oldham, Mast Sanity's North-East co-ordinator, said: "The Church of England is saying to its parishioners that they don't care what you think; they don't care that these masts could kill you, because they want some money. It's as simple as that."

She called on people to boycott any church which agreed to have a mast installed.

"We hope most churches will put parishioners first. There are vicars who are against masts and who will not allow this, but we encourage a boycott of those that do. We urge people to leaflet anyone going into the church."

Proposals to mount phone masts on two church towers in Hawes, Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, were met with fierce opposition from residents worried about health risks and were eventually thrown out last year.

However, the town has since been deluged with applications for more masts, including one in a church and another in a business park.

John Carter, spokesman for the Church of England diocese of Ripon and Leeds, said the deal with Quintel S4 was aimed at enabling "mast sharing", as some churches were getting numerous requests for mast installation from different operators.

"It doesn't mean there's a kind of carte blanche for phone masts to pop up everywhere," he said. "Applications will still be subject to the normal planning permissions."