So this talk about reform of masts is just to get our votes? Well, we knew that anyway. This Government must think the British public is stupid!


EXCLUSION ZONE POLICY TO BE SCRAPPED

This is Exeter

12:00 - 01 April 2005
A policy designed to prevent mobile phone masts being built near some hospitals, schools and homes in Devon is being scrapped. Officials in Mid Devon created a 500-metre mobile phone mast exclusion zone around such buildings because of concerns about the health effects of the structures.

It was to have been included in the next local plan.

But now the rule is being removed after a Government inspector said there was no generally-accepted evidence that suggested masts posed a threat.

Mid Devon District Council has published a report into the inspector's recommendations in which officers agreed its policy is no longer workable.

Councillors must now decide whether to accept this. The report would then be subject to a six-week public consultation period before being adopted, perhaps leading to a rise in the number of phone masts in Mid Devon.

Mid Devon senior planning officer Simon Thornley, said: "We felt that if we continued with the policy, this would result in the Secretary of State directing us not to follow our local plan."