Terms agreed with Hutchison 3G for use on an existing Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) aerial site (3-5 Nightingale Lane) for non emergency service aerials

Report: 08
Date: 17 November 2005
By: Commissioner

Summary

Terms have been agreed, subject to approval, with Hutchison 3G (known as ‘Three’) for the location of additional aerials at an existing aerial site. In accordance with Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) policy, the Director of Property Services has delegated authority to handle this matter, subject to consultation with the MPA link member for the Borough.

The link member was consulted and has requested that the matter be put before the Finance Committee for consideration. This report details the proposed terms and provides a generic risk analysis in relation to the local area. It makes recommendations on this proposal.

A. Recommendation

That Members approve the terms agreed, subject to contract, with Hutchison 3G for the siting of mobile telecoms aerials and associated equipment at an existing aerial site.

B. Supporting information

1. The Finance Committee gave approval for this site to be used for non-emergency service aerials (details on the exempt Appendix 1), terms have been agreed, subject to contract, for the use of additional space at the site, for Hutchison 3G wish to install and operate 3G equipment.

2. The co-location of other operators’ equipment is in accordance with national planning policy guidance. Operators are encouraged to share sites where possible, this being regarded as best practice in planning terms.

3. Exempt Appendix 2 is a map of the area, showing the building in relation to its surroundings. The blue stars show the approximate position of existing mobile telephone aerials. This information comes from a visual survey and the Radio communications Agency website. Schools are shown by the blue shaded boxes, with the health centre and hospital in the yellow shaded boxes. The information on the location of schools is provided by the Department of Education database, Edubase.

4. Immediately to the west of the building is St Francis Xavier Sixth Form College. Given the proximity of the College to the site Hutchison 3G are obliged to undertake consultation with the school prior to planning submissions. This consultation is undertaken as part of Hutchison 3G’s compliance with the Code of Best Practice on Mobile Phone Network Development. Within the grounds of the school is a Day Nursery.

5. We have been informed that Orange PCS Ltd consulted the St Francis Xavier School prior to submitting a planning application for their scheme and no objections were received.

6. Consultations in relation to the schools form part of the Code of Best Practice that the operator is signed up to. These form part of the planning processes for this installation. Hutchison 3G undertakes this consultation as the operator of the equipment.

7. Siting of aerials relative to schools and hospitals is dealt with under the planning system, which the operator, if approved to proceed with this site, will deal with under the Traffic Light model incorporated in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Code of Best Practice mentioned above. The National Radiological Protection Board deals with health and safety issues.

8. The appropriate health and safety equipment will be installed on the roof to protect persons working on the roof, at Hutchison 3G’s expense.

9. The generic issues relating to mobile phone mast sites were discussed in the approved July 2003 paper to the Finance Committee entitled “Terms agreed with Vodafone for use of Chiswick police station as a site for non emergency aerials”.

10. Consultation with all relevant departments to ensure there are no problems resulting from this installation. The Directorate of Public Affairs has also been advised.

11. Direct consultation has been undertaken with the MPA link member and staff unions and Police Federation. No responses have been received from the unions or Police Federation.

12. Elizabeth Howlett, as MPA link member for Wandsworth Borough has responded to this consultation process and has made the following comments:

[Mrs Howlett] would like to restate her position, both as a local councillor and the MPA link member. She is unhappy with MPA generating revenue in this way. Also, she believes that the siting is inappropriate, beside a school for the deaf which is also one of the very few state boarding schools in the country. This is specially the case as research into the effects of exposure to transmissions is still ongoing.

For these reasons she asks that the proposal is referred to the Finance Committee.

These issues are discussed below.

13. The MPA requires the Director of Property Services to put each case to the Finance Committee for approval where the MPA link member requests this.

14. The Oak Lodge School for the Deaf is located approximately 800 metres to the south-west of the site. At this distance, the school is out of range of any of the defined exposure zones for the antennae. The presence of other buildings and obstructions between the two sites will mean that readings for an aerial on the site will be significantly below acceptable levels.

15. Other existing aerial sites that are closer to Oak Lodge than this proposed site. Based upon the latest available evidence, the proposal does not pose any significant additional risk to Oak Lodge, given the distance between the school and the site.

16. The generic issues relating to mobile phone mast sites were discussed in the approved July 2003 paper to the Finance Committee entitled “Terms agreed with Vodafone for use of Chiswick police station as a site for non emergency aerials”. In addition, the National Radiological Protection Board’s (NRPB) report A Summary of Recent Reports on Mobile Phones and Health (2000–2004) issued in January 2005 reviewed the available national and international literature on health related issues. A summary of these papers is filed in the Members’ Library.

17. The main conclusion of the NRPB’s report is that there is no evidence of detrimental health effects from mobile telecoms base stations.

List of abbreviations

MPA

Metropolitan Police Authority

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

NRPB

National Radiological Protection Board

C. Legal implications

1. The agreement will create a new leasehold interest in the property in favour of Hutchison 3G. The lease will be outside of the Security of Tenure provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (as amended).

2. Under the Telecoms Code, operators such as Hutchison 3G have powers to compulsorily acquire and retain sites for aerials, subject to compensation provisions. Although the lease seeks to limit the tenant’s ability to exercise these powers, this has been untested in the courts. Such powers are rarely used due to the potential adverse impact on site acquisitions and it is considered that the risk of this occurring is low in current circumstances. The MPA retains rights to terminate the lease in the event that the aerial conflicts with MPS systems or operational matters.

D. Race and equality impact

There are considered to be no equality and diversity implications arising from the issues in this report.

E. Financial implications

1. The terms agreed with Hutchinson 3G are contained in Exempt Appendix 1. The terms agreed have been negotiated to ensure that the MPA’s interests are protected as far as legally possible.

F. Background papers

• Finance Committee – 16 January 2003
• Finance Committee – 23 October 2003
• Code of Best Practice on Mobile Phone Network Development:
  Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2002
• Department of Trade & Industry Mobile Phone Base Station Audit – School Results 2002: DTI Press Release 18 February 2003 (P/2003/100)

G. Contact details

Report author: Alan Croney, Director of Property Services, MPS.

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback