Temporary Bilsdale mast should be in place in three weeks, says transmitter boss

Television signals should be restored in a little over three weeks to 90 per cent of residents across the north hit by the Bilsdale transmitter fire, the boss of the firm which owns the mast has claimed.

Arqiva chief executive Paul Donovan said he was optimistic that European environmental regulations over the protected site would be overcome imminently and the firm was ready and eager to install a temporary 80m mast in a disused quarry on the North York Moors.

The loss of coverage has affected parts of the Harrogate district, including Masham and Ripon.

After almost a month of escalating anger over the length of time it has taken to restore television signals to the BBC North East and Cumbria area, Mr Donovan issued an unreserved apology to the hundreds of thousands of residents that have been denied services since a fire wrecked the 306-metre structure on August 10.

The cause of the fire, which started between 25m and 50m up the mast, is being investigated by forensic consultants employed by the firm. The firm has ruled out arson.

He said: 

“I know it seems like four weeks is a long time since the fire, but we have been working 24/7 to make sure we deliver those technical solutions as fast as we possibly can.”

Mr Donovan, whose firm delivers television services to 17 million homes, said he appreciated the lives of elderly people had been severely impacted, as his customers on average watched television for 240 minutes a day.

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He was speaking to the media on the edge of an exclusion zone surrounding the damaged transmitter, just days after the national park authority raised concerns over the speed that Arqiva was working to install an 80m temporary mast at the site.

Brushing aside suggestions from the North York Moors National Park authority that Arqiva had “lost several weeks” due to inaction and focusing on access issues at the site, Mr Donovan said his firm prided itself on “providing super reliable services”.

He said: 

“When was the last time you switched on your TV and wondered whether it would work or not? This is a very unusual and irregular event for us that has very significant impact and we would like to apologise for that.”

“Working tirelessly” to restore coverage

Mr Donovan said Arqiva had been working tirelessly to restore services and by introducing temporary sites, such as a new one at Sutton Bank, near Thirsk, bringing signals back to a total of 500,000 homes.

He added: 

“We are very close, in fact I use the word imminent, to gaining full planning approval for a temporary 80m mast in a disused quarry.”

He said following legal concerns with landlords Mexborough Estate over access to the site a fleet of helicopters had been booked to do more than 100 trips to the remote moorland site, bringing up hundreds of tonnes of concrete and construction materials.

Mr Donovan said: 

“As soon as we have planning permission and we are really ready to go for this it will take around 21 days for that to be in place.”

He said Arqiva would work to mitigate the impact on remaining 10 per cent of homes which did not get their signal restored with the temporary mast by tuning the network and looking at additional infill sites for temporary coverage.

He added:

 “However, there will be areas, a little bit like a mobile phone network, which have some not-spots.”

Mr Donovan said the firm had opened talks with North Yorkshire County Council and charitable organisations about what it can do to help the most vulnerable people in those not-spots.

Temporary Bilsdale transmitter replacement ‘could take months’

Harrogate district residents may have to wait another two months for their TV signal to return, it emerged yesterday.

It was initially thought that an 80m temporary transmitter, being built to replace the Bilsdale transmitter damaged by fire on August 10, would take just three weeks to complete.

But a meeting of the North York Moors National Park Authority heard its construction was some way from starting and would take a month alone.

The need to follow international regulations to protect the sensitive moorland around the mast has also caused delays.

Members were told many people living in the north-east, including North Yorkshire, still had no signal and that escalating frustrations over that had been exacerbated in the Bilsdale area by the lack of a mobile phone signal as a result of the fire.

The authority pledged to do everything in its power to accelerate the erection of the temporary mast, including delegating any necessary decision-making powers to the most senior officers to bypass committee meetings.

However, the meeting heard Arqiva had been concentrating its efforts with the landowners, Mexborough Estate, to overcome access issues and had not contacted the national park authority until several weeks after the fire.

Exclusion zone

Chris France, the authority’s director of planning, said that as far as he was aware the 309-metre guyed mast structure, which was constructed in 1969, appeared to be beyond repair with “a huge bulge in it”, leaving it so insecure a 400-metre exclusion zone had been created around it.

Arqiva is targeting using a disused quarry on the moor to the south of the exclusion zone for an emergency mast because that would have least impact on the biodiversity.

Mr France said that emergency national planning regulations allowed replacement masts as long as they were movable without the need to go through the planning process.

Arqiva has proposed to put it on sleds, weighed down by large blocks of concrete flown there by helicopters. The structure would then be secured by guys attached to the surrounding heather moorland.

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The site has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and classified as a European Special Protection Area and a Special Area of Conservation since the mast was built so Arqiva consultants have asked whether it is necessary to screen the development for environmental and habitat impacts.

Mr France said if screening processes were deemed necessary the timescale for any consultation may take a further month.

A temporary mast would not be permanently tied down and may not last in winter conditions. Arqiuva has indicated after three months “another replacement replacement mast” may be required which it said would be subject to full planning permission.

‘Taking longer than we anticipated’

The meeting heard a second complication was that the mast had mobile phone equipment on it and people living and working in the area had been left with no signal. Members were told mobile phone operators were now searching for places to put a mast up.

A spokesman for Arqiva said as Bilsdale is a Site of Special Scientific Interest to replicate what is there would not be a simple task. He added:

“The legal process to secure appropriate access to the site to build the temporary mast is taking longer than we initially anticipated and as a result it will not be operational by this weekend as we’d hoped.

“We are making representations to the court as to the severity and the urgency of the situation, but we are in the hands of the judicial system currently.”

 

 

Rare heather moorland holds up TV transmitter replacement

Plans to replace the fire-damaged Bilsdale transmitter and restore TV and radio signals for large swathes of the Harrogate district are being held up by the transmitter’s location within a rare heather moorland.

The blackout of Freeview TV channels and loss of radio signals has affected thousands of homes, particularly in the northern part of the district, after a major fire on August 10 put the 1,030 ft mast out of action.

Patience is wearing thin among many people, who have now been affected for three weeks.

Stray Ferret follower Lynette Cooper, who lives in central Harrogate, summed up the mood when she said:

“I’m totally fed up. For weeks now, I haven’t been able to see any of my favourite programmes.

“It’s the same for my daughter Helen at her home in Pickering and a friend told me that some elderly people at a Harrogate nursing home she goes to, just sit there with nothing to watch.”

The Bilsdale transmitter, built on the moors near Helmsley in 1969, is one of the most powerful transmitters in the UK, serving hundreds of thousands of viewers and listeners from North Yorkshire to the North East and beyond.

Fire crews were called to Bilsdale mast near Helmsley this afternoon after reports of smoke coming from the area.

The Bilsdale mast’s moorland location.

In a statement on August 13, transmitter operator Arqiva said:

“Our plan involves the erection of an 80m temporary mast at Bilsdale and we have been surveying the site to identify the best alternative locations within the restrictions we have.

“Included in this is the fact that Bilsdale is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, meaning we have to seek agreement to place any additional equipment.”

In its most recent update since the fire incident, the company could still not provide a likely date when services would be restored. It said:

“We continue to work through the process to enable access to the Bilsdale site to build the temporary mast.

“There is no specific new detail to share at this point but we are continuing to work round the clock to find a way forward.”

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The transmitter’s location within a government-protected area of 44,000 hectares of moorland continues to be a stumbling block.

The area was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its heathland habitat and breeding birds. Special permission needs to be granted for access across it.

Natural England says on its website:

“Heather moorland is rare on a worldwide scale – there is probably less heather moorland in the world than tropical rainforest.

“One of the largest continuous expanses of upland heather moorland in England and Wales is here in the North York Moors – a sheep could wander from Egton to Bilsdale without leaving it. Moorland covers a third of the North York Moors National Park and most of the higher ground is covered in heather.”

The area is also a designated Special Area of Conservation — a status reserved for important plant habitats in Europe — and a Special Protection Area because of its importance to breeding birds.

Although the access issues are yet to be resolved, Aquiva said last week some Freeview services had been restored for those who receive signals from smaller relay sites. None of them are in the Harrogate district.

A TV Licensing spokesman has said customers unable to receive TV coverage for more than a month will be eligible for a refund or free extension of their TV licence.

 

 

 

 

No TV? Your questions answered by local aerial expert

After a fire at the Bilsdale transmitter a week ago many homes in the district still have no TV.  This week, we put out a social post asking people how it was affecting them and it had a huge response.  So we’ve hooked up with Jody Lovatt of Direct Aerials based in Knaresborough and put some of your questions to him.

Mr Lovatt says he has been inundated with calls and has been working long hours, visiting up to 30 homes a day to re-tune aerials. He has warned homeowners to be wary of people charging huge prices for aerials re-tuning. His charge is £30.00 per home.

Do you know when services will resume? 

The company responsible for the transmitter, Arqiva, says there will be “significant improvement” in the coming days. It’s my understanding that there’ll be a limited number of channels back by August 28 – when the signal returns to around 80% strength. Only the main channels will resume at this point.

Will I need to retune my TV when services resume? 

If you didn’t try to re-tune your telly when you first lost your TV signal then you will not have to re-tune. If you tried to re-tune your TV not realising the fire was the problem, then you will have to re-tune it.

Why doesn’t my TV retune to the Yorkshire region? 

About 90% of the Harrogate district can get Yorkshire TV, most will need their aerials moved and TVs retuned. There are a number of transmitters that I can turn your aerial towards, including Emley Moor, Hayshaw, Belmont and even Pontop Pike. It’s a quick job of around 20 minutes.

If you live in a higher part of the district, such as Harlow Hill, you may be able to do this without moving your aerial or calling out an engineer. Your TV will give you the option of the Yorkshire region when you try to re-tune it.

The only homes that may struggle with either of these options are low lying areas such at parts of Jennyfields or parts of Bilton.  Homes there may have to resort to buying a Roku stick to get services if they want some TV before the signal is restored.

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What is a Roku stick? 

A Roku stick is a bit like an Amazon Fire Stick. It’s easy to buy (Argos, Sainsburys, and Currys stock them). It costs about £20 and is easy to install. It connects your TV to the internet if you have wifi. It is effectively a streaming box.

Will I get a refund on my TV Licence? 

Some of my customers have already asked the BBC if they will get a partial refund of their licence fee. I’m told the answer from the BBC has been no because BBC radio services are working.

Do you have a question for Jody? You can contact him directly on Facebook page here.    

Harrogate district TV and radio coverage disrupted by mast fire

A fire at a transmitter in North Yorkshire is affecting television and radio coverage in the Harrogate district.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue were called to Bilsdale mast near Helmsley this afternoon after reports of smoke coming from the area.

Readers of the Stray Ferret have got in touch to report that the issue has affected television coverage in the Bilton area and north of the district.

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North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service said six appliances and two water bowsers were in attendance at the fire this afternoon.

A spokesperson for the service said:

“Crews are working hard to control the fire in difficult circumstances – it is unclear at this time if any of the centres transmitting capability has been affected or the cause of the fire which will be investigated in due course.

“NYFRS ask that members of the public do not go near to the site, particularly as this area has limited access and we need to be able to move vehicles and people around to help fight the fire.”