Overhead Lines, Lanyon Quoit (Hansard, 14 March 1956)

§ 4. Mr. Hayman
asked the Postmaster-General why overhead telephone lines were erected over the moors north-west 360 of Penzance, an area scheduled in the county development plan as one of great landscape and historic value, without consultation with the county planning committee.

§ Mr. Alport
The Post Office was exempted by the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, from the need to consult county planning committees, but telephone managers have standing instructions to give special consideration to amenities in planning overhead routes in areas of special beauty. The hon. Member may have in mind the district of Lanyon Quoit, but here the line was put up in 1936, and the change recently made was the replacement of the wires by a single cable and the resiting of some of the poles.

§ Mr. Hayman
May I ask the Assistant Postmaster-General to bear in mind that this is a place of great wild and natural beauty and that it also has great historic and prehistoric interests? Does he not think that in places of this kind the senior officers of his Department should make it a rule to consult the county planning authority before anything is done?

§ Mr. Alport
As I have explained to the hon. Member, no real change has taken place in the situation which has existed since 1936, but I can assure the hon. Member and other hon. Members interested in this matter that my right hon. Friend intends to be particularly careful to ensure that nothing is done to desecrate the beauty of this particular part.

§ Mr. Stokes
Will the Assistant Postmaster-General say whether it is a habit to consult county planning authorities before indulging in these depredations?

§ Mr. Alport
May I remind the right hon. Gentleman again that this is not a change from the situation which has existed for the last 20 years? My right hon. Friend intends to consider the proposal that where necessary these consultations should take place, even though the Post Office is not obliged to undertake them under the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, passed by the right hon. Gentleman's Government.