Council chiefs are rethinking plans for mobile telephone masts because of fears that their radiation may be causing bees to disappear. Eastbourne's planning committee has refused permission for a new mast unless and until it is convinced there is no danger to the insects, and Bolton council has launched an investigation into the threat.

Last month, The Independent on Sunday reported exclusively that exploratory research at Germany's Landau University suggested the radiation interferes with bees' navigation systems. The German scientists, whose work has won two international awards, found that bees failed to return to their hives when "cordless DECT mobile phones" were placed in the masts.

The research was designed to indicate the effect mobile phone radiation and other "electrosmog" may have on human brains. But it may also provide a clue to the reasons behind "Colony Collapse Disorder", when hives suddenly empty, which has hit half of all US states and is spreading in continental Europe.

This was supported yesterday by Ferdinand Ruzicka, emeritus professor at the University of Vienna. He revealed that two-thirds of the beekeepers he surveyed who had a mobile phone mast within 300m had suffered "unexplained colony collapse". Professor Ruzicka believes the radiation may increase the insects' vulnerability to disease.

At the end of April, Eastbourne's planning committee overturned its officers' advice and refused permission for T-Mobile to erect a 14.7m mast on a roundabout.

Officially, the committee rejected it for aesthetic reasons, the only grounds open to it under planning law. But Councillor Barry Taylor, the chairman, said the threat to bees was "an important issue" and permission for masts should be refused unless they could be "proved" to be safe for the insects. Bolton council has asked its planning working party to investigate the issue.

Last month, one London beekeeper reported that 23 of his 40 hives had been abruptly abandoned; there are reports of similar collapses in Scotland and the North-west. The British Beekeepers' Association says the situation is "under scrutiny".
(By Geoffrey Lean, The Independent, 06/05/2007)