Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, of the Extended Area Services (EAS) mast sites that are located in Ceredigion how many (a) have been designed and have received planning approval, (b) are awaiting physical work to connect the mast to the network and (c) are awaiting final activation.

In your constituency of Ceredigion, there are 11 EAS sites, 8 of which have been designed and have completed the planning approval stage. 4 of the sites have completed the passive build stage.

For reference the key stages are:

1) building the structure (this is known as ‘passive build’)

2) connecting the mast to the network, either by a cable link, microwave link or (on occasions) via a satellite connection

3) activating the mast for operational use for the emergency services

The table attached provides an update on each sites’ progress and shows when power is forecast to be provided along with a forecast for site activation. After the award of the contract to connect to the network in Autumn 2021, we anticipate that a survey of each site will result in activation timelines varying depending on the work involved, therefore the dates forecast for activation may change accordingly.