When Roman invaders made landfall on the British coast in AD43, it was at the present-day settlement of Richborough where they probably set up camp.

Now this sleepy corner of rural Kent has become an unlikely battleground once again – as the potential site for telecoms masts as high as London’s Shard skyscraper that will enable high-speed trading firms to make millions.

Vigilant Global and New Line Networks (NLN) want to build communications towers to shave milliseconds off the time it takes to make multimillion-dollar trades.

But their proposals have met with dismay from locals, who are opposed to the idea of the “eyesore” masts in their neighbourhood.

The two firms, who build ultra-fast cable networks that hedge funds and investment banks pay to use, have submitted planning applications for the masts near Richborough. They hope that the giant structures, both more than 1,000ft high, will win them business from high-frequency traders, known as “flash boys”.

High-frequency trading is a form of financial transaction that uses powerful computers to make large trades as quickly as possible. It requires ultra-fast data transfer, in some cases not much slower than the speed of light, that allows traders to steal a march on rivals by closing deals fractionally quicker.

The two masts would allow both firms to beam microwave signals across the Channel to Europe milliseconds more quickly than is currently possible.

Retired dentist Andrew Cracknell, 64, (left) and his wife Judi Cracknell, who live close to the proposed site of a tall transmitter tower, in Richborough, Kent. Photograph: Frantzesko Kangaris/The Guardian

In the case of NLN, the 1,000ft mast would be part of a 3,200-mile cable network stretching from New York to Land’s End, on to London and eventually to Frankfurt, Germany’s financial centre. Both towers could be ready by the middle of next year if planning applications with Dover council run smoothly, enabling quicker communication with European markets.

But locals, some of whom say that they have been told nothing about the plans, expressed concern about the masts.

Tara Gilpin, 28, works at a children’s care home, which cannot be named for the protection of its residents, near the proposed site of NLN’s mast. She has never heard of NLN – a joint venture between trading firms Jump Trading and KCG – but doesn’t like the sound of their proposals.

“First and foremost, it would be an eyesore and this is a nice place,” she said. “This is a residential care home for young people. You fear they might try to climb up it, so it could be a danger as well.

“No one wants a mast when they look out on their back garden. It’s lining their [the companies’] pockets, so they can build in their own back garden if they want.”

Retired dentist Andrew Cracknell, 64, and his wife Judi, live closer to the mast site, in a picturesque cottage where a dwelling has stood since 1442. “It’s a bit of a backwater round here, quite old-fashioned,” said Andrew Cracknell.

He is also yet to hear anything about NLN’s plans and fears heavy traffic during the projected six months of construction. “There seems to be no end to what they’ll come up with. “It’s obviously not something I’d be keen on and nobody has asked me about it.”

If the Cracknells and Gilpin want an idea of how serious high-frequency traders are about gaining even the slightest advantage, they could read the Michael Lewis book Flash Boys. It details how a company called Spread Networks dug an 827-mile trench under mountains and across rivers from Chicago to New Jersey – at a cost of $300m.

The result was an ultra-latency line that reduced the time taken to transmit data from one end to the other from 17 milliseconds to 13 milliseconds.

NLN and Vigilant aim to make similar time savings with masts instead of cable. Both of them insist that they won’t just be monuments to the power of high finance, but will also benefit the local community.

Craig McKinlay, the Conservative MP whose South Thanet constituency would host both masts if they secure planning consent, is far from convinced. “There’s nothing in this that helps the community,” he said. “Beyond the visual impact, which is only going to be negative, does it affect nearby Manston airport, which we’re trying to reopen?”

But Vigilant and NLN are understandably keen to do everything they can to allay such concerns. NLN said: “NLN is committed to serving the communities in which we operate. We look forward to working closely with the local Dover and wider East Kent communities to collectively develop a plan that enables them to share in the benefits of a proposed mast development.”

Potential benefits, they say, include better broadband speeds, mobile reception and radio signal, achieved by attaching telecoms infrastructure to the masts.

Vigilant Global also played down the potential negative impact on people of having a 1,000-foot high mast in their eyeline. Its location was “chosen to minimise impact to the surrounding populations, natural resources and community assets, while also meeting communications network requirements in the UK and Europe”, it said.

The company added: “The proposed mast is just 3 metres wide, and our proposal would avoid the need for the mast’s guys to cross railway lines, roads, power lines and waterways.

“To share in the wider benefits from the mast with the local community, we have entered into discussions with several local organisations to provide access to the mast and to provide additional support.”