The Lickey Hills Society

Communication Masts

We were surprised to read in The Bromsgrove Standard that the Birmingham City area is faced with 200 new masts this year, eight of them in the area adjoining the Lickey Hills area. As members will know, the Lickey Hills Society has been concerned about the planning regulations governing communication masts, and the ease with which companies get approval. We are particularly concerned about masts in the Lickey Hills area and on our behalf Julie Kirkbride MP wrote to the relevant minister, Jeff Rooker. In his reply he stated that prior to planning applications "discussions should be carried out by operators with other organisations with an interest in the proposed development, such as residential groups, parish councils or amenity bodies". However, there was no formal requirement for this to be done - a matter that ought to be remedied at the earliest opportunity.

In view of the minister's comments we wrote to the agent for the Mobile Phone Operators' Association asking that we, as an amenity/conservation society, be consulted. They replied that they would ask operators to notify us about proposals. But alas only one has ever done so! So much for consultation! The Mobile Operators' Association highlighted the problem that there were no lists available to them of such groups who also ought to be consulted and so they relied on local planning departments to inform them. Accordingly, we wrote to Birmingham Planning Dept and Bromsgrove DC Planning Dept asking that we should be put on their lists (if they had one) of such bodies, and that they should compile a list if they had not done so.

Given the efforts that we have made to facilitate the inclusion of our Society and other interested bodies in the pre-planning discussions, it concerns us that we should learn first of a whole raft of proposals from a newspaper rather than from those organisations that agreed to engage in consultation. Perhaps the process has not yet got off the ground but, unless someone can prove to the contrary, it seems to us that nobody is really interested in consultation. Therefore, it is about time the government stepped in to remedy the situation by subjecting masts to the same planning process as other planning applications. The time has gone when there was a need to fast track masts for basic phones and we are now faced with hundreds of masts for the generation of newer, more sophisticated 3G phones so that Beckham, whoever, can send pictures of themselves to their chums, and load down music faster that hitherto. According to the authoritative, award-winning finance pages of the Guardian , the uptake of these new phones has been very poor indeed. Alarmingly, will we be faced with masts that are just unsightly, health-threatening white elephants?

On The Web

As we reported in the last NEWSLETTER the Committee is aware of the benefits from having our own web site. We have entered into what we hope will be productive discussions which we will help us to set this up.

A Profile of Committee Member Brian Bridgewater

Born in Shirley at the start of the Second World War, one would think growing up for the first few years would be quite difficult but not so. As the war years passed my family and I enjoyed a great interest in the outdoors. Our parents were great cyclists. My oldest brother had a sixteen inch wheel bike, I would sit on a saddle with stirrups attached to my Dad's crossbar and a younger brother would be in a carrier on the back of Mom's bike. The rides would take us to Yarningale Common, the Lickey Hills and Stratford on Avon and picnics to remember. The years passed and by the age of nine I was having great fun on the farm at the end of my paper route. This is where all my future work life started. By the time I was fifteen Shirley started to become urbanized and the farm we knew so well was sold. The owner asked my father if I could go with his family to help set up a new farm in Stoke Golding near Hinckley. My father was probably only too glad to see one of his boys go and when he said YES, so my travels began. The next six years were devoted to training as a herdsman, with three of them on a large estate in Hampshire. After my national service I moved to Canada where I owned my own dairy farm. I can remember a day in December when I opened the door one morning to a wall of snow and the only way out was through the bedroom window. By sitting on a large piece of cardboard I slid down the snowdrift, did my milking then dug a hole to the door for breakfast. The drive had to be cleared everyday in time for the milk truck so the kids could walk to the highway to catch the school bus. So ended a typical year on my farm in Canada. On my return to England in 199I I met my wife Pam and settled at the foot of the Lickey Hills. My interest in animals and conservation led me to join the Society and I became a member. I am also a member of the local parish council. This part of Worcestershire is an area of great natural beauty and well worth protecting and I for one will do what I can to help.

Recent Events

Our thanks to Tom Hill who on January 21st used his postcards from the past to take us on a fascinating journey back into the yesteryear in south west Birmingham.

Another jolt to the collective memory was Mike Brooke's annual and very enjoyable Lickey Hills Quiz Night. Our thanks to Mike and his team for all of their efforts which provided not only a great evening's entertainment but also the sum of £152 raised from the raffle. This will be sent to for the Hikkaduwa village fund to support the rebuilding of this Sri Lankan village which was devastated by the tsunami.