Information Resilience and Transparency
Please ask for: Carly Wattle
FOI Reference: 8295989
Phone: +443000417061
Email:
xxx.xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Date: 24 September 2019
Dear Mr Kelly
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) 2000, relating to 5G. Please see the response below and attached.
Q1.
We are not aware of any announcements of 5G rollouts anywhere in Kent from any
of the mobile operators. There are no 5G testbed systems in Kent.
Q2. We do not carry out our own research on 5G systems. We monitor research
announcements from DCMS, Ofcom and other reputable sources for information on 5G
systems. None of the research carried out so far indicates that 5G is harmful. To try and be as helpful as we can to the enquirer, the following commentary may be of
assistance.
• 5G uses non-ionising radiation, which means that it does not harm human DNA,
see
https://5g.co.uk/guides/how-safe-is-5g/ for some further background.
• Ofcom recently responded to an FoI, a copy of their response is at
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/157219/5g-safety-testing-
foi.pdf
•
In the USA, FCC has done some research and concluded that 5G is safe, see
https://www.cnet.com/news/fcc-deems-5g-safe/ and
https://www.fcc.gov/general/radio-frequency-safety-0
Q3. KCC is completing conversion of all its lights to LED.
Q4. No
Q5. Not applicable as 5g is not included.
Q6. The Kent Country Parks team will not be removing any trees in Folkestone and
Hythe for the installation of 5G
Q7. The Kent Country Parks team will only remove trees from their land that are
deemed dangerous for Health and Safety reasons or that are coppiced as part of the
land management of the sites. Therefore there are no specific plans to remove any
given number of trees in Folkestone and Hythe in the next two years.
Q8. The Country Parks team do not plan on planting any trees in any of the Kent
Country Parks sites as they do not actively plant new trees as part of their site
management plans.
Please see our Highways Departments response to Q’s 3 – 8 attached.
If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied with
legislation, you have 40 working days from the date of this response to ask for a review.
You can do this by following our complaints process; details can be found at this link
https://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council/contact-us/complaints-and-feedback#tab-7 on our website. Please quote reference 8295989.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can appeal to the Information
Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Details of what you need to do, should you wish to pursue this course of action, are
available from the Information Commissioner’s w
ebsite http://ico.org.uk/concerns
Yours sincerely
Carly Wattle
Information Access Officer