Tories flip-flop over phone masts

3.19.58pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 28th Jul 2008

Tories in Parliament have been caught facing both ways on planning rules for mobile phone masts, leaving Stockport residents at risk, says a local MP.

Last month Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell put forward a change to the Planning Bill in Parliament which would have given local people the final say over the siting of controversial phone masts. The amendment was defeated when Conservative MPs abstained from the key vote.

Three weeks later a Tory MP, Daniel Kawczynski, has tabled a parliamentary motion calling for the very same changes to the law that his Party had refused to vote for.

Commenting, Mr Stunell said:

"They've been caught saying one thing and voting for another.

"First they said they were for more local control, but when an opportunity to bring phone masts under local control came up, they bottled it. Now they are back were they started again! This comes at precisely the time that a leading cancer research institute is advising its own staff to be aware of the potential risks.

"It leaves Stockport residents with no effective voice on the siting of mobile phone masts. I fear that Tory words and commitments were never intended to be kept."

Phone masts were exempted from planning control by a Conservative government in 1984, and there are now over 40,000 base stations across the country. According to Mr Stunell many are uncontroversial, but some cause real local concern and current planning rules deny local communities and councillors any effective power to refuse them.

Governments have been reluctant to plug the gap in the rules after receiving over £30 billion in licence fees from the operators.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. Last week, Dr Ronald Herberman, Head of the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, issued a memo to 3,000 staff indicating that he thought there was enough evidence "to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use". For more information please see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/24/mobilephones.cancer

2. Mr Stunell raised in Parliament the issue of Mobile Phone Masts for the second time in June. His own Private Members' Bill on the subject in 2005 ran out of time just before the last General Election.

3. A copy of Andrew Stunell's proposed amendment to the Planning Bill is available by emailing Zoë Horwich at horwichz@parliament.uk.

4. For the full transcript of Mr Stunell's speech on the amendment please see the following link:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080625/debtext/80625-0021.htm#08062584000777