MP urges ministers to fast-track plans for emergency telephone masts in the South Lakes

In Parliament this week, Tim urged ministers to press ahead with plans for new emergency telephone masts in Kentmere, Longsleddale, and the Langdales.

Speaking during a debate on the Government's Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill, Tim said: "Those Home Office masts are vital to the safety of people in those communities, and to the emergency services that often operate in those communities.

"They are also vital because they then provide a platform for commercial delivery for mobile telecommunications in vast, underpopulated - but not unpopulated - areas.

The Home Office continuously puts off the erection and bringing into operation of the Longsleddale, Kentmere and Langdale masts.

"At the moment, we understand that the Home Office has no plan to activate those masts for another three or four years.

"Will the Minister put strong pressure on the Home Secretary to act swiftly to make sure that our emergency services, the people they come to aid and the wider community in the lakes have the benefit of those masts and have them quickly?"

In response, the Minister for Digital Infrastructure, Matt Warman said: "He is absolutely right that the emergency services network is a core part of the ambitions of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to deliver a shared rural network, and we are engaging intensively with the Home Office on that.

"I remember being involved in an incident myself at the top of Scafell Pike, where we had to descend the mountain in order to get mobile phone signal to call a helicopter, which thankfully came rather quickly, but would have come earlier had we had a signal on the top of that mountain."