Legal warning over phone mast decisions
Jun 2 2006
Chester Chronicle (UK)
http://iccheshireonline.icnetwork.co.uk ... _page.html
A POLITICAL group has warned councillors they could be indicted for corporate manslaughter.
England's Parliamentary Party (EPP) collaborated with a pressure group called Masts Away from Schools Homes and Hospitals (MASHH), in a letter to the leader of Chester City Council, Paul Roberts (Lib Dem, Farndon).
The correspondence said if anyone was found to have been killed by radiation from a phone mast, criminal charges could be brought.
It said: 'England's Parliamentary Party is totally opposed to the location of these masts in populated areas and, hereby, formally puts you on notice that you may, as part of the decision-making process, be indicted for corporate manslaughter should a fatality occur resulting from illness deemed to be attributable to the emissions from these masts.
'You owe a duty of care to the people within the boundaries of this council and your decisions with regard to the location of telecommunications masts could breach that duty of care.
'As a result of that breach, should it cause a person's death, the law of negligence must be applied; if so, whether that breach of duty is so bad as to amount, when viewed objectively, to gross negligence, it will warrant a criminal conviction.'
Malcolm Harle, of MASHH, said his group was formed after residents fought against the siting of a mast in Westminster Park, close to a nursery.
He said: 'We are very concerned with the health implications but the Government at national and local level aren't listening. We realised pretty early on we needed political help.'