Congleton Town Council have confirmed that they are yet to receive any notification of 5G networks being rolled out within the area.

Dr Dawn Gibbins MBE submitted a question to Congleton Town Council asking whether 5G will be rolled out across the town, and if that was the case, whether a time frame had been specified when the technology would be switched on.

Dr Gibbins also sought clarity on how 5G would be transmitted, and if the town council had allowed 5G antennas to be installed on LED streetlights and whether any Congleton schools would be having antennas installed.

This question was raised at Thursday's Congleton Town Council meeting of the Community & Environment Committee, which was conducted via Zoom.

Some people are worried about the effects on health from 5G technology, while those in the mobile technology sector insist it is perfectly safe and operates well within safety guidelines.

Cllr Kay Wesley, chair of the Community & Environment Committee, responded on behalf of the town council to Dr Gibbins' question, saying : "We as a council understand there is a national rollout programme for 5G, which has been approved by the national Government, we have received no notification so far of a rollout programme for our area and cannot find Congleton mentioned by EE, Vodafone, O2, BT, Sky Mobile or Three.

"Last year this town council raised its concerns and objections in a government consultation in allowing 5G operators permitted development rights, which would mean there would be no need to consult the planning authority before extending or converting current mass to 5G.

"We are waiting to hear when this consultation will be discussed, we do not have the technical details about how it is transmitted, or how this may be planned, but we will investigate.

"The head of Cheshire East Highways street lighting has confirmed that he's not aware of any requests for 5G attachments to be added to any street furniture in either Cheshire East or Cheshire West area. The Cheshire East area's next work manager is also not aware of any requests, although did confirm that there has been a big project in Congleton to improve superfast broadband fibre cabling and people will have seen BT Openreach vehicles.

"We have not heard from any Congleton schools, but all the indications are that nothing has been installed in Congleton."

Cllr Margaret Gartside, chair of the town council's Congleton Green Working Group, confirmed the group would take on the responsibility of investigating 5G further and any findings would be reported back to the Community & Environment Committee.

Cllr Martin Amies, told the committee that he had been looking into the 5G issues, for which he described as a very "detailed set of equipment".

Cllr Amies added: "There's various different bands of 5G being proposed across the world, of which the UK are only extending licences for the 'low band', which uses the same frequencies which we already use for 4G, 3G and WiFi, we're already subjected to all this radiation anyway.

"There aren't going to be any transmitters on streetlights because that's all to do with high-band technology, which hasn't been rolled out or licensed.

"Ofcom have not yet raised any bits for the high band frequencies, so to be honest it's all a bit of a storm in a teacup."