War over phone masts

Leading MPs today launched a blistering attack on mobile phone companies.

They accuse the firms of " walking all over" the feelings of local people when putting up masts - and councils of failing to really understand the issues when agreeing to allow masts to go up.

The report from the all-party Parliamentary Mobile Group calls

for tough new legislation on the siting of masts amid fears about their health implications.

The head of the group claims planning rules favour mobile phone companies.

Phil Willis MP said: "The current-regulations favour the operatorsmassively. We are calling for legislative changes to at least make it a level playing field."

Under existing regulations:

Today's report calls for full planning applications to be mandatory for all phone masts.

"Phone companies are, in some cases, walking all over the local community," said Mr Willis.

The report also criticises local authorities for failing to understand the technical issues surrounding masts.

It said: "The mobile operators can be very aggressive in getting what they want and a lot of smaller planning departments, particularly in London, don't have the technical resources to make an informed decision."

Mr Willis called for a register of experts to be set up for the use of authorities when considering applications.

The report's author, Janet Askew of the University of West England, said: "I think our recommendations would actually go some way to improving the image of mobilephone companies.

"They say they are already carrying out a lot of this work, so why not just make them put in full planning applications?" Giving evidence to the parliamentary group, Mike Dolan, executive director of the Mobile Operators Association, representing the major phone networks, said: "Mobile phone operat ors have great ly improved their consultation with communities and councils. Greater planning controls will do nothing to address community concerns."

There are more than 40,000 masts in Britain, with a further 3,100 providing communications for the emergency services.

Scientific opinion remains divided on whether phone mast radiation is harmful to health, but many campaigners are convinced that it is.