Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, is calling on the Government to face up to the concerns over planning guidelines for mobile telephone masts and to support research into the real risks of mobile telephone masts in a Parliamentary motion.

The local MP is also urging the Government to implement in full the recommendations previously made by Sir William Stewart. His report recommended that improvements should be made in the availibility of information about mobile phones and masts to the public and that the planning process for the erection of base stations, which has caused widespread concern, should be subject to independent review.

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone MP said,

“It is time the Government stopped burying its head in the sand and faced up to the potential risks posed by these telephone masts. Local authorities should be given more power to deal with an issue which is of great safety, local and environmental concern.

“At the current time, many mobile telephone masts do not require planning permission at all and where they do companies often steamroll over consultation and objections.

“Proper, solid research needs to be done to establish exactly what threat mobile telephone masts pose to people.”