One 2 One plans to site the 12-metre pole in Toft Road - just around the corner from another mobile phone mast.

"People want to use phones in their homes and at times when you are indoors coverage is lost," said a spokesman on Monday.

"Masts can only handle a certain number of simultaneous calls and when they reach a capacity we need to install another base station."

The new pole is designed to look like a lamppost with a metal cabinet at the bottom.

A company acquisition agent pinpointed the best spot in Knutsford for the development.

But residents in Glebelands Road, who have learned to live with Orange's pole near Paradise Garage, are hoping the company think again.

"If there is going to be a plethora of these masts in the area then I hope this one will be turned down," said one neighbour, whose garden backs on to Toft Road.

Councillors are expected to refuse the scheme, but this week the One 2 One spokesman said they could not share the other mast.

"It would have to be a larger lattice structure for us to do that and they are not designed for residential areas," she said.

There are currently 40 million mobile phone users in Britain.

This week, a spokesman for Macclesfield Borough Council confirmed that officers were still in talks with Vodafone to have the phone company's mast removed from the Conservative Club car park.

The company is believed to have drawn up plans for two new antennae - disguised as chimneys - to be built on the red-brick building.