Planning policy

The MOA and its member companies believe that planning policy should continue to enable the development of the communications infrastructure that is so vital for the UK economy as it emerges from the recession. We do not believe there is justification for seeking to introduce greater restrictions and unnecessary additional regulations which would hinder the operators’ ability to continue to respond to increasing consumer and business demand for mobile network coverage, services and capacity.

Additional planning regulations could also hinder the operators’ abilities to consolidate their networks and reduce the number of base stations in operation and would jeopardise the delivery of the digital infrastructure that is so important to the UK’s economic recovery.

We also believe that the current approach to health considerations is the correct one. The position of the UK Health Protection Agency is that “the assessment of evidence related to possible health concerns associated with exposures to RF fields from base stations is best dealt with nationally.” UK Governments all accepted the key precautionary recommendation of the Stewart Report in 2000 that all mobile phone base stations in the UK should comply with the ICNIRP international radio frequency public exposure guidelines. All base stations in use in the UK comply with these guidelines and current planning policy recommends that, as long as a certificate of compliance with the ICNIRP guidelines is submitted with a planning application, no further consideration of health effects is necessary or appropriate.

The Health Protection Agency continues to take account of all relevant research on mobile phones, base stations and health. In addition, Ofcom continues to audit (on request) public exposure to radio frequency emissions from mobile phone base stations. The results of these audits show that typical public radiowave exposure levels from mobile phone masts are small fractions of the ICNIRP guidelines.

Further information on this audit can be found on the Ofcom website at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/sitefinder/audit_info.

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