Haringey council on Monday 14th Nov 2005 voted unanimously for the following motion. Both the labour and Lib Dem leaders said the government is wrong on the issue.

Haringey Council Motion

MOTION

This Council notes:

• Haringey residents' public health concerns about mobile phone masts, with particular concern about the siting of masts near to schools, hospitals and residential properties

• Legislation is weighted in favour of mobile phone companies and Haringey Council currently has little power to act on our residents' concerns

•Masts below 15m are exempt from planning permission

• The Council has established a Scrutiny Review on Mobile Phone masts to identify residents' concerns and produce recommendations designed to address them at the earliest possible opportunity and looks forward to its full report.

This Council believes:

• More national research is required into the potential health risks of mobile phone masts

• Councils like Haringey should be able to take health concerns into account when considering grounds for rejecting mobile phone mast applications.

• Mobile phone companies should be required to make a full planning application for masts of any size and should always be required to provide a statement of the intensity and direction of the signal

This Council resolves:

• To write to Haringey's two Members of Parliament requesting they lobby Ministers for a moratorium on mast sites near to schools, hospitals and residential properties

• To ask our Members of Parliament to support any Bills in Parliament which would mean safer siting of phone masts, including giving Councils clear authority to reject mast applications on local public health grounds

• To write to all other London Boroughs to ask for their support in in pushing for health concerns to be relevant