MAUK meet Minister of State responsible for Housing and Planning.
Sunday, May 1, 2005
MAUK meet Minister of State responsible for Housing and Planning.
1. Before the May 2005 General Election a meeting was arranged to discuss Planning issues concerning Telecoms Rollout with the then Telecoms Minister Yvette Cooper.
2. Due to the General Election that meeting had to be postponed. The meeting was rearranged for Monday 27 June 2005 again with Yvette Cooper but in her elevated post as Minister of State responsible for Housing and Planning. It was attended by MAUK's Legal Director, Alan Meyer, accompanied by the House of Commons Labour MP Doctor Ian Gibson who is Chairman of the all party Health Committee on Cancer and recently backbench MP of the Year.
3. The meeting took place at the offices of the Deputy Prime Minister at 26 Whitehall. The Minister had with her the two Senior Civil Servants responsible for Development Control and Telecoms planning issues.
4. At the meeting MAUK raised the following main Planning concerns:-
1. The adverse effects of the General Permitted Development Order 1995 as amended with its various loopholes.
2. The vexed question of proper consultation with local communities and the review of the ineffectual ODPM Code of Best Practice.
3. The confused and contradictory paragraphs 29 and 30 of the revised 23 August 2001 Planning Guidance Circular PPG8 particularly in the light of the dismissal by the Court of Appeal last November of the Government's Appeal in the Harrogate Schools case.
In addition MAUK raised both the "Health Concerns Issue" as opposed to the distinction regarding the Government's PPG8 views concerning Local Planners consideration of 'health effects', and the legal fact as held by the Courts that 'genuine public fears and concerns' are material planning considerations to be taken into account by the Decision Maker.
Finally MAUK brought to the Ministers attention the growing issue of Electro Sensitivity, which may affect a significant portion of the UK population who are not 'Stewart genetically homogeneous' and who may be adversely affected by environmental hazards. In this context the Minister in her Housing capacity was reminded that Housing Circular PPG3 required planners to provide "an environment in which people would choose to live."
5. MAUK pointed out that because the GPDO and its permitted development rights for Masts under 15 metres did not exist abroad, in Europe Network Development had been through use of tall buildings and where unavailable much higher free standing masts away from sensitive locations.
In those ways there was not the problem of street lamp post masts outside the first floor bedroom windows of peoples homes.
6. At the end of the meeting Doctor Ian Gibson made it clear with the Government's substantially reduced House of Commons majority these growing issues would not go away and had all party support. Planning changes were now essential and long overdue.
7. The Minister and her team listened throughout attentively and stated that no decisions had so far been taken on these planning issues although as previously stated in Parliament the Government required proper consultation with the Public which was one of the reasons why the Code of Best Practice was under review.
8. On Tuesday 28 June there was an adjournment Debate lasting 1½ hours during which the proposer Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown asked the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Mr Jim Fitzpatrick who had not been at the previous afternoon's meeting the following question :-
"I would be very interested to hear from the Minister the outcome of yesterday's meeting between the Minister of State, the Hon Member for Norwich (Doctor Gibson) and Alan Meyer of Mast Action UK. What flaws in Government Policy on planning permission for the telecommunications masts did Mr Meyer highlight at the meeting?
Mr Fitzpatrick did not answer this question.
9. On Tuesday 19 July at the House of Commons Telecommunications Mast Forum co chaired by Lembit Opik MP, Doctor Ian Gibson MP and Nicolas Gibb MP it was possible to answer the question left unanswered in the adjournment Debate by the Under Secretary of State Mr Jim Fitzpatrick by highlighting in some detail the points put to the Minister Yvette Cooper on 27 June.
At the end of the 3 hour Forum Debate attended by more than 100 people Doctor Ian Gibson said:-
"This is an important public health issue following the advice of Sir William Stewart, the meeting has supported the proposal that all masts should be subject to full planning applications with proper, not just token, local consultation, including a review of health concerns. The Government should fund peer reviewed independent research into areas where cancer clusters have arisen round GSM masts, with the office of National Statistics providing information on actual cases of cancer and motor neurone disease. The Police Tetra system needs to be revisited on safety issues ahead of itsfurther rollout."