Satellite Television (Hansard, 1 November 1990)

§ Mr. Michael Spicer

We received over 500 responses to the consultation paper. They revealed a wide divergence of views on the need for stronger controls over the siting of dishes and on the case for two dishes per house. The proposed changes to permitted development rights which we are announcing today are designed to address both these concerns: to increase the controls over installations which would damage visual amenity, especially in sensitive areas, while at the same time to ensure that the development of broadcasting services is not unduly constrained. We have also taken into account the potential use of communal systems and the likely growth of cable networks which over the next few years will contribute significantly to the further protection of the environment.

The main features of the new package being proposed by my right hon. Friend and the Secretary of State for Wales are a general provision that dishes must be sited to minimise their effect on a building's external appearance: this, combined with a new national code of practice, will give planning authorities wider power than they have at present to reduce the obtrusiveness of poorly sited dishes and will provide clearer guidance to installers on how to adopt a more consistently acceptable approach; a requirement that specific planning permission must be obtained for all installations on chimney stacks, walls and roof slopes fronting the highway in national parks, areas 693W of outstanding natural beauty and conservation areas, as well as those fronting the waterway in the Broads; a general permission for two dishes per dwellinghouse, but with stricter limits on the size of dishes; new permitted development rights for the installation of particularly small dishes on chimney stacks, where they may be less obtrusive than elsewhere on the building; new permitted development rights for installations on smaller blocks of flats, but subject to the limitations on number and size set out earlier in my reply; new permitted development rights for installations on smaller, non-domestic buildings, subject to the limitations on number and size set out above, except on chimney stacks, walls and roof-slopes fronting the highway.

We have tightened the present restrictions to take advantage of the reductions that are being achieved in the size of dishes. There will of course be further developments in antenna technology over the next few years: and by about 1995 some 65 per cent, of the population may have access to television services through underground cable networks. For these reasons we intend to review the situation again in about two years' time, to ensure that the rules take maximum advantage of technological improvements which can reduce the visual intrusiveness of dishes. I should say now that I cannot envisage any circumstances in which a general permission for more than two antennas per house would be acceptable.

To give effect to these changes, amendments to parts 1 and 25 of schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning General Development Order 1988 will be laid before Parliament as soon as possible.