BICKLEY residents are fighting plans to put up phone masts in a woodland where they have spotted bats, badgers and stag beetles.

Orange wants to build two masts and an underground duct linking them, in fenced-off woodlands owned by Railtrack next to the railway bridge on Clarence Road.

The masts will give Eurostar-travelling customers coverage over a three- minute blackspot between Bromley South and St Mary Cray.

But residents, who have formed an action group to fight the proposals, say they have seen bats, protected by law, flying from the woodlands.

Endangered species, including stag beetles and badgers, as well as rare birds, such as nightingales, woodpeckers and marsh tits, have also been spotted.

Malcolm Mitchell, 55, of Clarence Road, whose garden backs onto the woodlands, is leading the protests.

"The woodland is a wildlife corridor," he said. "Stag beetles enter our garden from the woodlands and badgers use the track as a run. To build masts for three minutes of signal time is just pathetic."

Bromley Wildlife Trust is seeking permission from Railtrack to enter the woodland and carry out a survey of wildlife.

Norman Parr, chairman of the trust, said: "We are very concerned the building of masts will destroy habitats and any endangered species."

Eurostar spokesman Roger Harrison said: "Bromley South to St Mary Cray is a small segment of a 60-minute journey to the tunnel. It's a fact of life that phone conversations get interrupted on train journeys."

When Eurostar's St Pancras extension opens at the beginning of 2007, most Eurostar trains will be diverted, leaving just a handful of trains passing through Bromley, he added.

A spokesman for Orange said: "The two antennae will prevent the loss of signal for the hundreds of Orange customers travelling on Eurostar and other local trains. Wherever a new mast is required, we make every effort to minimise the environmental impact by working closely with the local planning authority."

A Railtrack spokesman said: "It's a matter for the local authority to take into account any environmental considerations when it decides whether to grant planning permission."

A Bromley Council spokesman said residents' concerns about wildlife in the woodland would be checked out.