Jun. 13 2023
Source Page: European Regional Development Fund: annual implementation report 2021Found: Strathconon is one such site in the Highlands and Islands region.
May. 30 2023
Source Page: Climate change monitoring report 2023Found: reduction targets (from the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009) in response to the global climate emergency
Jun. 23 2021
Source Page: Infrastructure Investment Plan 2015: progress report for 2020 to 2021Found: It provides a wide range of services and facilities including a Children’s Emergency Department, 242
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2021 to Question 157144 on Emergency Services Network: Strathconon, for what reason the activation of extended area service sites cannot be accelerated on sites where both the passive infrastructure and electricity are already in place.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We expect the contract for connecting all 292 EAS masts to the network to be awarded in Autumn 2021. We do need to follow government procurement processes fully in this award and are unable to accelerate this aspect of the process. Each site has to be individually designed, with planning approval granted, built and then integrated into the EE/ESN network. By default, EAS masts are in the most remote and rural areas of the country, situated in difficult terrain and with accessibility issues. After the award of the contract we anticipate that a survey of each site will result in activation timelines varying depending on the work involved. We will then complete the physical work to connect the mast to the network and, separately, activate the mast. Although we cannot give firm dates for the final activation of masts at this stage, we expect this work to commence in 2022 and complete towards the end 2024.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2021 to Question 157144 on Emergency Services Network: Strathconon, for what reason her Department is unable to accelerate the process for activating extended area service masts.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We expect the contract for connecting all 292 EAS masts to the network to be awarded in Autumn 2021. We do need to follow government procurement processes fully in this award and are unable to accelerate this aspect of the process. Each site has to be individually designed, with planning approval granted, built and then integrated into the EE/ESN network. By default, EAS masts are in the most remote and rural areas of the country, situated in difficult terrain and with accessibility issues. After the award of the contract we anticipate that a survey of each site will result in activation timelines varying depending on the work involved. We will then complete the physical work to connect the mast to the network and, separately, activate the mast. Although we cannot give firm dates for the final activation of masts at this stage, we expect this work to commence in 2022 and complete towards the end 2024.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2020 to Question 71074, on Emergency Services Network: Strathconon, if she will take steps to allocate funding to extended area services sites across Argyll and Bute as soon as possible.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Funding has been allocated to sites across Argyll and Bute, we expect to commence works to activate these sites in 2022 and complete towards the end 2024.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2020 to Question 71074, on Emergency Services Network: Strathconon, what steps her Department has taken to look at cases where there may be a particular case for early activation due to community need, as well as potential funding sources to enable that.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We expect the contract for connecting all 292 EAS masts to the network to be awarded in Autumn 2021. Following the award of this contract the work to deliver the links can take several months before connecting the mast to the network and, separately, activating the mast. Although we cannot give firm dates for the final activation of masts at this stage, we expect this to commence in 2022 and complete towards the end 2024. Unfortunately we are unable to accelerate this.
Dec. 09 2020
Source Page: European Structural and Investment Funds Programmes in Scotland: 2020 case studies bookletFound: Strathconon is one such site in the Highlands and Islands region.
Mentions:
1: Wheelhouse, Paul (None - None) associate myself with your opening remarks on the tragic events at Stonehaven and your kind words for the emergency - Speech Link
2: Wheelhouse, Paul (None - None) Once a milestone has been achieved, action is taken to ensure that the network is performing correctly - Speech Link
3: Wheelhouse, Paul (None - None) We do not provide the phone services, but a mobile network operator will do that for us.We had to refine - Speech Link
4: Wheelhouse, Paul (None - None) what we are doing and what it is trying to do with the emergency services network. - Speech Link
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her timescale is for the Emergency Services Network and Extended Area Service mast in Strathconon becoming operational.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The mast is part of the UK's Emergency Services Network (ESN), which is designed to give our emergency services reliable communications coverage in more rural areas across the whole of the country. We are focussing on completing the infrastructures as soon as possible, but generally the sites will only be activated closer to the time when they are needed, as there are significant operational costs when the sites are live. The ESN Programme is currently looking at cases where there may be a particular case for early activation due to community need, as well as potential funding sources to enable this. In this instance the Programme is looking to activate this mast ahead of ESN, timescales are still to be determined.