18/10/2006 - Welsh mobile phone Masts now require full planning permission

The Environment, Planning and Countryside Committee of the National Assembly for Wales has accepted by a unanimous vote (41 to 0) the principle of full planning for all telecommunication base stations, leaving England isolated as the only part of the UK where full planning for phone masts will not be required. The report, which was the subject of the vote, included 7 recommendations (see below) which if fully implemented by the Welsh Assembly would give the people of Wales the greatest say on phone masts' siting than any other region in the UK.

Planning Sanity congratulated all parties in Wales for taking this bold step forward, particularly Janet Davis AM (Plaid Cymru) for her tenacity in ensuring this issue has stayed firmly on the Welsh Assembly agenda, and her willingness to work with all sides in the debate including organisations such as Planning Sanity to ensure the fullest debate possible of all the real concerns that the Welsh people have over the inappropriate siting of telecommunication installations.

Janet Davis AM (Plaid Cymru) said "I am very pleased that two of the committee recommendations have addressed the main objectives of my subordinate legislation proposal. This is urgently needed to help to increase democracy in the decision-making process for masts and ensure that health concerns are taken into account in a meaningful way.

"At the moment, developers are given almost a free rein to bypass the full planning system and we are, therefore, seeing an explosion of masts in our communities. The public is losing confidence in decisions made in relation to these types of developments, and, unable to see means of influencing decisions. This cannot go on and hopefully will not if the Welsh Assembly Government accepts these recommendations and implement them as soon as practically possible."

Recommendations

1. We recommend that the Welsh Assembly Government revises its Code of Best Practice on Mobile Phone Network Development in line with the findings of the Arup/University of Reading review and in conjunction with subsequent revisions to the UK Government's Code of Best Practice and further that it considers making the code a statutory document or incorporating relevant parts into TAN 19.
2. We therefore recommend that the Welsh Assembly Government develops a communication strategy to raise awareness of its Code of Best Practice on Mobile Phone Network Development.
3. We therefore recommend that permitted development rights are removed and that mobile telecommunications apparatus up to 15 metres be subject to the full planning process.
4. Since there is clearly a conflict between planning policy and guidance, we recommend that the Minister clarifies guidance in line with Planning Policy Wales to ensure that local planning authorities take health impact assessments into account when deliberating on applications for planning permission or prior approval.
5. We therefore recommend that the Welsh Assembly Government, using the auspices of the Welsh Local Government Association, encourages local planning authorities to take up the offer of meetings with the MOA's members following distribution of their annual network development plans each autumn.
6. We therefore recommend to local authorities that they publish the MOA members' annual network development plans and arrange for them to be sent to key stakeholders as early as possible and that the Welsh Assembly Government revises its Code of Best Practice to reflect this.
7. We recommend that guidance be revised to make a commitment to the feasibility of site sharing obligatory in all applications.

Links:

[View report in full] (135 KB .pdf)

Also in the news

Growth retardation found in Egyptian children exposed to Low Frequency EMFs

Taken from the paper abstract:

A cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the growth of 780 children of both sexes, aged between 0-12 years, and living at two different areas in Ismailia, Egypt, with approximately similar socioeconomic standards. Based on a designed questionaire, the exposed group was formed of 390 children from the Abu Sultan area. They were chosen from families living within 50 meters nearby high voltage electric power lines. Another 390 children from the El-Sheikh Zayed area were chosen as the control group. Standard anthropometric measurements were carried out for each child. Plain X-ray was done on the hands of 200 randomly selected children from both groups (100 each) to assess their bone maturation. In the exposed group the weight was significantly decreased only at birth, while the circumferences of the head and chest as well as the height were significantly reduced at all studied ages. The radiological study revealed a significant delay in carpal bone ossification of the exposed children. In conclusion: Exposure to low frequency electromagnetic fields emerged from high voltage electric power lines increases the incidence of growth retardation of children. Isolating these power lines in a scientific way in order to shield both the magnetic and electric fields or removing them far away from the inhabitant areas is recommended.

[View paper abstract on PubMed]

Power line radiation fears cause council to ditch plans for new homes

The council dropped plans to build six houses in the street after a report by officers said the levels "unexpectedly gave cause for concern".

The council's report says evidence about the harmful effects of power lines is the subject of much research, adding: "A policy of prudent avoidance' in this case is clearly sensible, as it is one thing acknowledging the existence of such a potential risk in all its uncertainties but another to build knowingly on land where the risk is known to potentially exist and is not quantified."

[View full story from "The Argus"]

Cell damage caused in rats by Extremely Low Frequency EMFs

Research study from 2005 has shown that ELF EMFs (such as those from powerlines and substations) can cause lipid peroxidation, which is a method of cell damage in fatty acids. This is further experimental evidence of non-thermal effects from extremely low frequency electromagnetic radiation.

This page has links to content that requires a .pdf reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader