Worried residents have called for plans to install mobile telephone equipment on an Oxford church tower to be ditched because of fears it could cause cancer.

People living near St Michael and All Angels Church, Marston, threatened to move house rather than face the feared health risks if the church allows mobile telephone company Three to put three masts on the church.

More than 40 people attended a public meeting on May 28 about the plans at the church, on the corner of Jack Straw's Lane and Marston Road.

Church leaders and Three spokesmen told residents that if church did not agree to the scheme, Government rules meant another mast would be placed within 1km, possibly in a more dangerous spot.

Churchwarden Dave Neal said: "We would be paid about £4,000 a year, but if it generates local anxiety it is not worth us having it."

Lesley-Ann Taylor, 43, of Jack Straw's Lane, said: "I've got a three-year-old and I'm here on behalf of four other families with small children who are all considering selling their homes if this goes ahead."

Jonathan Walton, of Three, said it had not been scientifically proven that masts caused cancer. He said the top of the church would potentially be less harmful than a mast lower down.