PROPOSALS have been put forward to build a 15-metre-high mast in a rural area of Wrexham as part of a new communication system for the emergency services.

The application would see a device with three antennas set up on land at Glas Aber in Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog to form part of the Emergency Services Network.

The Home Office is working with commercial network operator EE to create 700 new masts across the UK to aid the police, fire and ambulance services.

The aim is to route emergency service radio communications through 4G mobile phone masts instead of a physically separate network.

A representative from Clarke Telecom has written to several community leaders in Wrexham to inform them of the plans.

County Times:

In her letter, consultant planner Dianne Perry said a number of sites were considered before choosing the village in the Ceiriog Valley.

She said: “The Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme aims to provide an integrated critical voice and broadband data communications services for the three emergency services that meet the public safety requirements for functionality, coverage, availability and security.

“The chosen technology will be based on enhancing a commercial 4G network, configured to give the three emergency services priority over other users.

“The new service, to be known as the Emergency Services Network, will be delivered across England, Scotland and Wales via a mixture of existing and new greenfield sites.

“A number of options have been assessed in respect of the site search process and the preferred option is as follows: land at Glas Aber, Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, Wrexham.

County Times:

“All Home Office installations are designed to be fully compliant with the public exposure guidelines established by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.”

The new network was originally due to be completed by the end of 2019.

However, last September the Home Office announced that it would pay for use of the current Airwave system until the end of 2022 amid a series of delays.

EE has separately said it intends to have the system up and running by 2020.

The plans to install a mast in Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog will be considered by Wrexham Council at a future date.