UK Telecommunication Licence requirement

Operators must provide sufficient coverage to meet user demand. There were 43,000 new users per day between April and September 2000 inclusive; sales over Christmas 2000 were double those of 1999.

Government has a vested interest

Telecom operators paying billions for new licences, and are forecast to account for 1.5 % of UK GDP. Vodafone alone accounts for 10% of the FTSE100 index.

Health concerns.

Installations probably meet current health regulations – but it is not yet proved that these regulations are adequate.

Current safety limits are outdated – they limit thermal effects only. Repeatable tests show that non-thermal effects do occur at much lower radiation levels. What justification can there be for subjecting us to these effects with their potential dangers. Even if eventually proved to cause no long-term harm, why should we be subject to these unwanted stimulation effects on our brain and nervous system.
The telecom operators are claiming, without proof, that these effects are not hazardous. How much evidence can be ignored ?

Planning authorities should be guided by the fact that European Union Treaties advocated the Precautionary Principle (1993 Maastricht) to safeguard the public's health. Governments are not there to be led by the Industry in pursuit of progress and financial gain at the expense of the public at large. Governments should be able to interpret properly scientific guidance or advice.
The Stewart Report emphasises the ‘Precautionary Principle’. This should mean that where there are uncertainties we are protected to the greatest possible extent, until safety can be proven.
...more.

Profits before health.

There is no technical reason why high power base-stations have to be sited where people live, it is just the cheaper option to have a single central transmitter. 
It appears that at a national level, churches are actually being encouraged to put telecomm installations in church towers and spires to help raise church funds.
For the telecom companies this is a cheap alternative to building free standing masts. The danger lies with the fact that most churches by their very nature are deep within the community and surrounded for the most part with homes in which families of all ages spend the majority of their time. Money for nothing ? - there’s usually a catch.
Some land and building owners are prepared to put community health concerns before a bit of extra income but some, calling themselves Christians, are not.

Once you have a base-station.

Getting rid of base-stations is difficult.Landowners who later decide, on heath grounds or otherwise, that they no longer want a base-station usually face steep penalties. There is normally a penalty to renege on such a contract, typically £15000.

It is Government policy that the number of telecomm masts should be kept to a minimum and so encourages mast sharing. As 3G, WAP and videophones are brought in, or other operators start sharing a mast, the bandwidth used will go up. As bandwidth is increased (i.e. more channels in use) then while signal amplitude stays constant the total power increases proportionally as does radiation exposure.
The existing licences permit many times more power than presently used and these higher powers could be transmitted as technology advances. The chances of being told about any planned power increases seem small.

Planning Control.

In other parts of the world a 500 metre exclusion zone between base-stations and inhabited areas is being enforced to ensure public safety. In Knaresborough  people are living level with antennae less than 5 metres away. Planning authorities in England are not allowed to consider possible health issues as a basis for planning decisions. Legislation is urgently required to introduce proper control.

Nearly every day there are new mobile phone health warnings, telecom operators simply cannot say that mobile phone microwave radiation is definitely safe, underwriters at Lloyds have even refused to cover manufacturers against health damage claims from long term mobile phone radiation.