CAMPAIGNERS have urged BCP Council to carry out a full health assessment before it allows 5G to be rolled out across the conurbation.

Dozens of people attended Friday’s meeting of its cabinet to express concerns about the impact the next generation of mobile technology could have and the “outdated” government guidelines.

Council leader Vikki Slade said no examination had yet been carried out but that any installation would be subject to publicly-available environmental assessments.

In May, Vodafone announced that Bournemouth would be included in the second round of its nationwide roll-out with the first signals in place by the end of the year.

A petition handed to the council at the meeting by Michael Forte warned about the “unknown” long-term effects of exposure to 5G signals.

“It is the view of many people in the community that they feel very concerned about the proposed introduction, installation and operation of 5G technology in the BCP city region,” it said.

“Their primary fear is that this new and largely untested 5G technology still has not had any publicly available official government safety reports or environmental or health risk assessments.”

It called on the council to take a “precautionary” approach to allowing the technology and that concerns were “acted on”.

Cllr Philip Broadhead said the impacts of 5G were something “many” Conservative councillors were worried about and said he hoped to examine it at a meeting in September.

Council leader Vikki Slade said the findings of all environmental assessments carried out in relation to installation of the technology would be shared.

The potential health impacts of 5G was raised in Parliament by Labour MP David Drew in June when he asked whether the government would be asking for information from mobile providers on the impact the technology has on people and the environment.

In response, communications minister Margot James said Public Health England had found “no evidence of any significant risk”.

“A considerable amount of research has been carried out on radio waves and we anticipate no negative effects on public health,” she said.