Phone giant O2 erected the 15-metre mast in Ashdown Road, Farringdon, last year after wrongly receiving an approval letter from Sunderland City Council.

Now the council is embroiled in a legal battle to pull the mast down.

Michael Dixon, Conservative councillor for the St Chad's ward, said: "When this issue first broke, both myself and Coun Robert Oliver felt the council had made a genuine error and had tried to rectify it almost immediately.

"However, 02 were very quick off the mark, resulting in the legal discussions currently taking place."

O2 had submitted a planning application for the mast in February 2006, but the council opposed the bid over the design and siting opposite The Dolphin pub.

Nearby residents also launched a petition on the grounds that it would affect property values and their health.

But planning chiefs accidentally gave the proposal the go-ahead in writing and, despite them realising within an hour, O2 put up the mast.
Phil Barrett, Sunderland City Council's director of development and regeneration, said legal advice had been sought and discussions are taking place.

He said: "Counsel's advice has been obtained by the city council in respect of the status of the approval issued in error, but quickly corrected, and certainly before the company could have acted on it.

"The advice sets out a number of options for further action. Discussions are taking place between the council's planning and legal officers on the most appropriate way to respond to O2's position."

But O2 chiefs have vowed to stand firm, and refuse to pull down the mast.

"We have no intention of moving it," a spokesman said.

"We will have to wait to see what the lawyers say, and that's all we can say for now."