HC Deb 05 June 2003 vol 406 cc561-2W
Andrew George

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many of the Terrestrial Trunk Radio (TETRA) base stations required to provide full national radio coverage(a) have not yet found a site acceptable to landowners, (b) have yet to be subject to a planning application, (c) have been refused planning permission, (d) are proposed to be located in an area with a landscape planning dispensation, (e) are subject to a planning appeal and (f) have been subject to the upholding of a refusal to grant planning approval following an appeal; [114598]

(2) how many Terrestrial Trunk Radio (TETRA) base stations are required across the country to provide the police with the required national digital radio communications service. [114597]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth

About 3,000 TETRA base stations will be required to provide the police with an effective radio communications service across the Country. However, the total number of sites required to support the Airwave service has not yet been finalised and it is anticipated that many base stations will use existing facilities and not require new masts.

Acquisition of suitable site facilities is a matter for mm02, the main Airwave service provider. They have indicated to us that they do not maintain statistics on sites not yet found acceptable to landowners. In addition they have yet to start planning procedures for around 1,200 base stations. Owing to uncertainties in the network planning, particularly for Scotland where the roll-out is not due to take place before the last quarter of 2004 figures on the number of sites which have been refused planning permission or that will be located in an area with landscape planning dispensation are not available.

The mm02 have also advised us that the number of pending appeals is currently of the order of 10 and the number of lost appeals in the order of five. These figures compare very favourably with those for mobile phone networks, where the number of controversial sites is expected to be around five per cent of the total.