Public Petitions Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Official Report 285KB pdf

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New Petition

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Telecommunications Masts (PE1416)

Good afternoon and welcome to this meeting of the Public Petitions Committee. I remind everyone to switch off mobile phones and any other electronic devices, as they interfere with our sound system.

Apologies have been received from John Wilson, who is attending an event at Westminster on behalf of the committee. I thank him for doing that and welcome his substitute, Joe FitzPatrick, to his first meeting of the committee.

Under agenda item 1, we have one new petition for consideration today. PE1415, by Councillor Eileen Baxendale, Councillor David Bailey, Robert Brown—a former member of this Parliament—and Dr Keith Baxendale, seeks a review of health issues and planning guidance in respect of telecommunication masts. I refer members to the petition and the additional papers: a note by the clerk, which is in paper 1; and the Scottish Parliament information centre briefing. I invite the committee to consider the petition.

People have probably seen petitions on this issue before, as the committee has considered a number of similar petitions in previous parliamentary sessions. I have certainly been involved in the issue, as I imagine all elected members have been.

I would like to continue the petition for a number of reasons. First, we should ask the Government for its response to what the petition seeks. Secondly, it is 10 years since we have had an update on the Stewart report, and I think that it is time that we had another update. I would like to continue the petition to see what comes out of it. Other members will have things to say.

I should correct my earlier comment. The petition number is PE1416, not PE1415. There was a typo on our agenda, for those who are checking it carefully.

I agree with Sandra White. The issue has been going on for a long time, but knowledge increases as time goes on. It would be very useful to get an up-to-date viewpoint. Hitherto, it has always been the case that there was no significant likelihood of risk to the population, but, as Sandra said, 10 years on we should look to see if the position has advanced at all.

Clearly, the issue is emotive and often causes controversy in communities. I have been a local councillor since 2007, and my constituents have often contacted me about the issue when planning decisions come up. I note that paper 1 states that the Transport and Environment Committee took evidence on the effect of planning changes in February 2003. Obviously, planning law has changed and we have moved on somewhat since then. It might be worth the committee writing to Government and perhaps looking at how the new planning guidance impacts on this area.

We need to be careful that we do not repeat research that has been carried out elsewhere. Writing to the Scottish Government is probably the correct thing to do, because it will be able to pull together what research there is internationally and, I hope, report back to the committee.

Joe FitzPatrick is absolutely right. A lot of work has been done on the issue, and we have all been involved in it. However, my worry is that no database has been set up—that was a recommendation of the Stewart report. Should we write to the Government to ask if it is looking at establishing a national database, or if local authorities have a list? I am quite concerned that we do not seem to have a database of these masts.

If no other member wishes to contribute, are we agreed that we continue this important petition in line with both the suggestion in action point 1 under paragraph 16 in the note by the clerk and members’ comments that we need to get the Scottish Government’s views?

Members indicated agreement.