ICNIRP Certification is NOT Enough – Yasmin Skelt vs The First Secretary of State and Three Bridges District Council and Orange PCS Limited
Government Planning Policy Guidance on masts, PPG8 (Para 98) states: “… it is the Government’s firm view that the planning system is not the place for determining health safeguards. … In the Government’s view, if a proposed mobile phone base station meets the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines for public exposure it should not be necessary for a local planning authority, in processing an application for planning permission or prior approval to consider further the health aspects and concerns about them”. But a Planning Inspector who by all accounts followed that advice to the letter failed in his statutory duty – according to the Deputy Prime Minister.
An official Government Planning Guideline that is at variance with the expressed view of the Deputy Prime Minister (and final arbiter of planning issues in the UK) has no place in the planning process and should be withdrawn immediately. Until then the self-contradictory stance of the Government on this issue is untenable, making a mockery of the Democratic Process in respect of mobile phone masts.