They claim the M6 at Knutsford is a black hole and need a mast to give their mobile phone users a better reception.

"Customers have noticed that their phones just go dead," a company spokesman said.

Last week the phone company withdrew plans to erect a 15-metre mast with antennae dishes at Grange Farm, Plumley, in favour of a smaller one.

"The smaller pole will hopefully be in the same area but will be painted to camouflage it," said the spokesman.

But the company rejected the possibility of sharing rival Orange or BT Cellnet's masts.

"Orange has excellent coverage on that part of the M6 as we do on motorways throughout the country," said a spokesman.

And BT Cellnet said its mast at Knutsford service station was perfect.

But Vodafone insisted both were unsuitable.

"We always look at existing masts and consider sharing them," said the spokesman for Vodafone. "But we need one that will cover the length of the M6 in both directions and the other structures do not satisfy our needs."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.