Further to Minute 149 (2) of the previous meeting, the Director of Environment and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report explaining the role of the planning regime in the roll out of 5G technology and how safety measures were enforced.

The report explained that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governmentand the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport were jointly pressing for improved national mobile coverage by using 5G technology.  In August 2019, a consultation had been carried out on proposals to reform the current permitted development rights to allow the roll out to happen with fewer planning obstacles but the outcome of the consultation had not been published.  A report on the reforms being looked at had been provided to the Committee on 9 October 2019.  The current permitted development rights for Code Operators therefore remained as set out in Part 16 Schedule 2 of the Town & Country Planning (General Permitted Development)(England) Order 2015 (as amended in 2016).  The report clarified what these controls were and what the Council’s planning policies said about 5G.

The report did not attempt to discuss the science but explained, in lay person’s terms, the public health concerns and what role the planning system played in addressing those concerns.  

The Committee welcomed the information in the report and it was suggested that the report should be published in the planning section of the Council’s website, in order to provide a resource to which residents with concerns about the matter could be referred, following the addition of further information on the following matters:

·       The mechanism of self-certification by operators of mobile phone masts which was required by Paragraph 115 of the NPPF 2019;

·       The requirements of Planning Policy OU3 for operators to provide acceptable self-certification.

·       Ofcom information published on 17 April 2020, which verified that 5G-enabled mobile base stations remained within the Electromagnetic Field limits set out in the guidelines from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and were at small fractions of the guideline levels.

Resolved –   

(1)      That the report be noted;

(2)      That the report be updated with the further information set out above and published on the planning section of the Council’s website.