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Number of phone masts could soar in next year
(Leicester Mercury Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The number of mobile phone masts in the city is set to soar in the next year.
Five companies have put forward proposals for 56 extra antennae sites across Leicester.
These are in addition to 34 masts already granted planning permission and due to go up over the next year.
Leicester currently has 190 masts on buildings, including hospitals, schools, shops and police stations.
Proposed sites include the Walkers Stadium, Southfields library, Stocking Farm Community Centre and Leicester Sikh Centre.
The five operators - T Mobile, O2, Vodafone, Orange and 3 - said they needed to provide more network coverage.
The city council released the list of current and proposed sites after a request from the Mercury.
It does not keep a mobile phone mast register, despite Government guidelines saying it is "best practice" to do so.
Campaigners, who fear there are health risks associated with the masts, said they were worried there was little they could do to stop them being put up.
Max Adatia, who tried and failed to stop a mast being built near his home in Gipsy Lane, Northfields, said: "I'm dismayed, but not surprised.
"No matter how much you campaign, masts are going up everywhere and you can't keep track of all of them.
"The council should have made these lists public a long time ago because people have a right to know." Aylestone councillor Nigel Porter and his young daughter, Elizabeth, campaigned against plans to put a phone mast near Montrose Primary School, in Wigston Lane.
He said: "I think people will be worried. There is a perceived health risk and it's only right they should have an opportunity to comment." Keith Vaz, Leicester East MP, who has campaigned for better public access to mast registers, said: "I'm shocked at the number. These plans are far too big." The phone operators said third-generation (3G) phones, which enable fast internet access and e-mail, needed more masts, closer together.
Angela Johnson, of O2, which is proposing 25 sites, said: "You will be able to do everything on your mobile phone you can do on your laptop." A spokesman for T Mobile, which is proposing 14 sites, said: "Leicester is one area we've identified where we need to introduce or beef up our 3G." A spokeswoman for the Mobile Operators Association said: "If we want to benefit from mobile technology, we must accept the need for the networks which enable mobile phones to operate." Developers need full planning permission only for masts more than 15m tall.
Many of the proposed antennae are smaller and can be built unless there are objections to the council within 56 days of notification.
Additions to existing masts are usually classed as permitted development and no planning application is needed.
A city council spokesman said: "A mobile mast register is regularly produced by the Mobile Operators Association and we are happy to direct people to that organisation." The World Health Organisation has said there was "no convincing scientific evidence" that base stations and networks caused adverse health effects.
Copyright 2006 Northcliffe Newspapers Group Ltd
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