Telecommunication Developments (Hansard, 12 July 1985)

§ Mr. Macfarlane

The necessary orders, made by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State have been laid before Parliament today. The relevant orders consist of an amendment to the General Development Orders 1977–83, and a new special development order to deal with national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, conservation areas and the broads. An order made by the Secretary of State for Scotland amending the Scottish General Development Order 1981 in a similar manner has also been laid before Parliament today. These orders will come into operation on 1 November. I am advised that appropriate corresponding changes to Northern Ireland legislation are under consideration.

The general development order amendment provides for two new classes of permitted development. The first and more extensive concerns minor development by code operators — that is to say those persons operating a telecommunications system to whom the powers in the telecommunications code have been applied, by the telecommunications licences issued by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. These code operators will include companies who have been licensed to provide a national telecommunications system—British Telecom, Mercury, and the two national cellular radio companies — and a number of operators licensed to install local broadband cable television systems.

Much of the development associated with these systems is minor—much of the apparatus is underground—and it would be burdensome to impose full planning control in these circumstances. Class XXIV of the new GDO will therefore permit licensed code operators to install a wide variety of telecommunications apparatus under, on and over land, and on buildings, subject to various limits and conditions set out in that order. This apparatus includes wires, poles, ducts, telephone kiosks and equipment cabinets, small masts and certain antennae (including terrestrial microwave and satellite dishes), but excludes buildings.

Planning applications are not normally required for any development permitted by the various classes of the GDO. However, apart from the various limits set out in the GDO itself, the planning freedom represented by the GDO changes are qualified in their effect by the terms of each code operator's telecommunications licence, since every code licence contains conditions designed to help protect the physical environment and conserve the natural beauty and amenity of the countryside. For example, British Telecom's licence requires it to install its lines underground in conservation areas, with various specified exceptions; there are special arrangements for national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty and in Scotland for the national scenic areas; and more generally British Telecom must take steps to ensure that all new lines other than service lines are installed underground where it is reasonable to do so. Each of the various individual system licences therefore provides essential environmental safeguards which will help ensure that the planning freedom given by the GDO is exercised responsibly, and 543W that in many cases local planning authorities are formally consulted by the installer of the apparatus before development takes place in certain situations. The licence system allows these planning safeguards to be tailored to the type and method of installation of the telecommunications system concerned and to the nature of the area in question, after taking into account any views expressed by local planning authorities and others during the required statutory consultation period.

The other new Class of the GDO deals with certain apparatus installed by persons to whom no Code powers apply, but who nonetheless may be installing small antennae on larger buildings, either to establish a microwave transmission link to another site, or to receive signals from a telecommunications broadcasting satellite. Subject to limits on the size and number of the antennae, on the minimum height of the building and on the height which they add to the building concerned, we propose to extend permitted development status to these installations as well, under the new Order. However, the new special development order, which accompanies the GDO changes, disapplies the planning freedom to erect such antennae—in respect of both new GDO classes—in all the special areas to which it applies, namely the national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, conservation areas, and the Norfolk broads. In those areas, and in Scotland in the national scenic areas, the present requirement to make a specific planning application remains unaltered.

The special development order also has the effect of bringing into line with existing special areas any land which has been designated as a conservation area, AONB or national park in England and Wales since 1981, together with the broads. Quite apart from telecommunications matters, such newly designated areas will be subject to the narrower version of the rights to extend private houses and industrial buildings, in the same way as other such areas have been since 1981.

The various changes to the planning system in respect of telecommunications are intended to reflect the growth in telecommunications and changes in Government policy towards its regulation. We have taken considerable care following extensive public consultations to achieve both a reasonable degree of planning freedom for the benefits of telecommunications development while at the same time imposing effective and essential safeguards so that the surroundings in which we live are properly protected from visual damage.