HC Deb 14 September 2004 vol 424 cc1528-9W
Derek Conway

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he will implement the recommendations of the Stewart Report, section 1:36 within planning policy guidance note 8. [188588]

Keith Hill

Section 1:36 of the Stewart Report recommends that telecommunication development should be subject to the normal planning process. The Stewart Report made this recommendation in order to improve local consultation. The arrangements the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister put in place following the Stewart Report provide for the same consultation on mobile phone masts up to 15 m in height as is required by full planning permission.

Derek Conway

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what representations he has received from local planning authorities on the recommendations of the Stewart Report on permitted development of masts at 15 metres or below. [188591]

Keith Hill

Since the publication of the revised Planning Policy Guidance Note 8: Telecommunications in August 2001 10 local planning authorities have made representations about the Government's response to the recommendation of the Stewart Report on permitted development of masts up to 15 metres in height.

Mr. Shepherd

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether, in the light of the recent statement by Sir William Stewart, Chairman of the Health Protection Agency and the National Radial ion Protection Board on whether Tetra had any harmful effects, he plans to remove the permitted development rights granted to licensed telecommunications operators under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 (Part 24 of Schedule 2). [188819]

Keith Hill

The Government currently have no plans to remove the permitted development rights granted to licensed telecommunications operators under Part 24 of the "Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995".

The National Radiological Protection Board's (NRPB) independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) published a report on "Possible Health Effects from Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA)" in 2001. The report noted that the signals from TETRA base stations, like their mobile phone counterparts, are not pulsed. NRPB advise that there is no reason to believe that signals from TETRA base stations should be treated differently from other base stations.