BY BERYL PATEMAN

A MOVE to give the public more information on the siting of GM crop trials has been welcomed by planning watchdogs.

An EU directive that will put pressure on the Government to publish maps and a register of locations is currently awaiting ratification.

"If it gets the go ahead it will be subject to interpretation by the Government but it should provide the pressure needed to ensure that maps locating GM crops are available to the public," said John Unterhalter, rural spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The RICS has been lobbying for better public information over sites for two years.

"There's lasting public concern and uncertainty about the safety of GM crops. This could adversely affect property and land prices in areas where GM foods are being grown. It's therefore essential that people have easy access to location information," he added.

Environmental pressure groups had done their best to publicise sites, Mr Unterhalter said.

"But the RICS believes it's up to the Government to establish a public register recording the location of GM farms, type of crop, the nature of the modification and date of sowing.

"The information shouild also be easily accessible and free of charge. At the moment it's hidden away on a few govenment departrment web sites and very hard for the general public to find.

"Establishing a 'right to know' where GM crops have been grown is essential. The public deserves to be able to make well informed choices and this new register will assist non-GM framers and consumers througout Cheshire and the rest of the UK."

A two year GM trial has been running in the Nantwich rural area. It was Friends of the Earth members who alerted local residents to the experimental crop of fodder maize being planted at Richard Ratcliffe's Hill Farm near Aston. They had spotted it on an internet list.

At a public meeting the government and test organisers were accused of secrecy, a charge they denied alleging that the trial and the public meeting were publicised in a local paper notice and the local post office.