Sir, - V. Barrett, Sutton (August 22nd) and others have written concerning the proliferation of mobile phone masts all over the country. The bad news is that, where phone masts are concerned, we're only starting. This Government has in its gift two further mobile phone licences to be allocated before next April.
During the recent general election campaign, members of residents' associations and keen environmentalists attended a public meeting in Dublin concerning the vexed question of the siting of phone masts. As a result, a lobby group called "No Interference in the Planning Process" (NIPP) was born. The aims of NIPP are to put an end to planning exemptions or amnesties to mobile phone companies, of which there have been two.
The first, given by the Fianna Fail-Labour Government under Albert Reynolds in 1994, gave Telecom Eircell six months planning exemption for the whole country. This was a most generous gift indeed, for which it must have been very grateful. The downside of that exemption, like all others, is that the general public knew nothing about it. Some householders in Dublin city came home to find massive masts across the garden wall. Their right to know, to object and to appeal any development in their area was completely side-lined, contrary to natural justice.
The second exemption said that all existing masts of any kind could be used for the purposes of mobile phones. Sidelined again!
NIPP wants this government to turn the guidelines of ex-Minister Brendan Howlin into regulations. This would copper-fasten the idea that masts should never ever be sited in residential areas or close to schools. It would also insist that companies share masts, despite the commercial rivalry between them. We welcome support from residents' associations and environmentalists countrywide. - Yours, etc.,
Kathryn Mulready,
PRO, NIPP, 50 Calderwood Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.