The Telegraph, 25 February 2013

Fifty feet tall mobile phone masts can be “built anywhere developers choose to put them” and will return parts of the countryside to "the wild west wirescapes of the 1960s and 70s" under a new assault on planning rules, councils are warning.

MPs will debate this week proposals that to make it easier for telecommuncations to roll expand their broadband networks across the country.

The plans, contained in the Growth and Infrastructure Bill, remove a current requirement for developers to seek planning approval for new telecoms infrastructure.

Local authorities said they had “major concerns” that the proposals “could open the floodgates to phone masts, as well as broadband street cabinets and overhead cabling, being built in the countryside and near to people’s homes”.

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