U.K. Parliament Recommends All Cell Sites Be Reviewed

In a new report, Mobile Phone Masts, the All Party Parliamentary Mobile Group in the U.K. is recommending that every cell phone tower should be required to go through the normal planning process and that any blanket exemptions be revoked. The panel noted that this was one of the recommendations of the Stewart committee in its own report, Mobile Phones and Health, issued in the spring of 2000.

“[Our] report is highly critical of the current planning system and concludes that the voluntary code of practice by the mobile telecommunications industry is inconsistent and leads to public skepticism over planning decisions,” said Phil Willis MP, the chair of the committee. He added that the panel’s 19 recommendations represent a “huge challenge” for the government industry, and local authorities.