Exmoor National Park Authority approved controversial plans for a 30-metre high mobile phone transmitter – the second-highest on the moor – by a majority decision at its meeting on Tuesday.

Despite objections that it will have a “seriously-damaging impact on the landscape” and “look horrendous”, work will now start erecting the towering latticed structure on the car park at the Haddon Hill beauty-spot, overlooking Wimbleball reservoir.

Shared by four major mobile phone operators, the mast, to be built by communications specialists Arquiva, will provide coverage across a huge swathe of Exmoor which is currently a mobile-phone blackspot.

It is part of the Government’s Mobile Infrastructure Project to improve communications in remote areas particularly for emergency services.

Objectors to putting the mast in a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation included the Exmoor Society, which claimed that the massive structure would have a seriously damaging impact on the landscape and its enjoyment by the public.

Objections also came from the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which claimed the mast would contravene the fundamental purpose of the national park to conserve natural beauty and wildlife. It also urged that the mast be moved to a less intrusive site in the woodland of Britannia Shield.

Objector Sue Levinge, a regular visitor to Haddon Hill, also believed that not enough research had been done into alternative sites and felt the Britannia site had been dismissed on what appeared to be flimsy evidence.

Another objection described the mast as “horrendous and will ruin a cracking view”.

In a report to the meeting, Sarah Bryan, the park authority’s head of conservation and access, believed the mast would “form a dominating and intrusive feature” in the Haddon Hill car park and would impact on the natural beauty of large areas of moorland.

On the other hand, from more distant viewpoints, the mast “would not have a significant impact on enjoyment of the natural beauty of the landscape”.

A total of nine organisations gave evidence in support of the scheme, which was accepted by 16 votes to two, and the authority also heard evidence from parish councils in the area, including those of Skilgate and Upton which claimed improved mobile phone coverage would make moorland communities less isolated and boost business and tourism.

Welcoming the decision, West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said he hoped it would be the start of a programme to roll out vastly better mobile communications for the whole of the moor.

He was critical of those who had spoken up against the plans and said: “Like a lot of locals, I am getting heartily fed up with people outside the park trying to influence how Exmoor is run.

“A large proportion of Exmoor Society members don’t live on the moor and thus have not the faintest idea what difficulties are presented by sub-standard mobile communications and fifth-rate broadband coverage, particularly when the rest of the country enjoys 21st century standards for both

“There are still those, apparently, who want to see Exmoor kept as some kind of 19th century theme park.

“Because of the very challenging topography, we have to get a lot more hardware in place before we can cover all of Exmoor for mobile phone services and high-speed broadband but, personally, I shall cheer each time a new element is installed.

“I have no doubt that in a few years’ time people really will wonder what all the fuss was about.”

Exmoor Society chairman Rachel Thomas stressed that the society did not object to the principle of a mast – because improved communication on the moor was important – but to its location and the impact on the landscape.

She felt that national park officers had played down the landscape issues and misinterpreted the society’s position.

“We were also not happy with the fact that we were not allowed on the site visit and that we only saw the park’s landscape assessment a week before the hearing.

“We are certainly not against business and commercial development so long as they don’t impact on the qualities which make Exmoor so special.”