5G Petition in Brighton and Hove

Petitioners urge Brighton and Hove City Council to adopt precautionary principle and not allow 5G infrastructure until it is proven safe.

23:29 23 October 2019

Campaigners opposing the rollout of 5G are set to present at the Hove Town Hall meeting next week to convince the council to not allow 5G infrastructure in the area until it is proven safe. This comes after political and business leaders approved the Greater Brighton Digital Strategy at a meeting in Shoreham on Tuesday 15 October.

 

Brighton and Hove is one of Britain’s early 5G testbeds and the technology is already being used to improve social services. Tech experts and social care chiefs, for example, have been working together in their Digital Health Living Lab in using 5G to remotely monitor temperatures in a sheltered housing scheme.

 

A report to the Greater Brighton Economic Board said: “The council’s social care staff receive automated notifications if temperatures fall outside of a defined range – a system that proved valuable during the heatwave of summer 2018.”

 

The report added: “There is a need to grasp the opportunity and build a strategic approach that could see Greater Brighton as a leader in digital futures in the UK.”

 

Responding to campaigners opposing the rollout of 5G, the council said that it relies on the advice of Public Health England and would carry on with its current approach unless and until it was advised to stop by health chiefs.