Airwave/MM02 has been threatening to erect a TETRA mast on the Queen Street telephone exchange, despite refusal of planning permission earlier this week.

The company said there needed to be a mast there to serve beat officers in Broughty Ferry, adding, “There will certainly be something up there over the period of the G8 summit.”

With security for a gathering of world leaders a matter of public concern, the Tele asked police if the Queen Street site was crucial to what will be an unprecedented security operation in Tayside.

Officers declined to address that issue directly, but their response appeared to be at odds with the phone firm’s bullish stance.

Chief Superintendent Brian Powrie said, “Obviously, for an event on the scale of G8, discussions are taking place about a range of communication issues.

“One of these is the provision of TETRA masts and talks are on-going with Airwave/MM02 in this regard.

“It’s important to stress the discussions are at a very early stage and we have not reached the point of defining exactly where or how communications resources, including masts, will be deployed for the G8 summit.”

The Queen Street site has been the subject of a vociferous campaign from residents on both planning and health grounds.

After planning permission was turned down, Airwave/MM02 — the operators of the emergency services’ new communications system — initially said they would look at putting up a temporary mast then risking enforcement action by the planning authority.

Although the Gleneagles Hotel meeting of the top eight world industrial powers doesn’t take place until next year, the company said equipment would have to be in place this month for system testing.

Politicians have been critical of Airwave/MM02’sposition, with Dundee East MSP Shona Robison describing it as “arrogant in the extreme”.

It is not clear how the mast issue in Broughty Ferry will now continue, with the possibility of Airwave/MM02 deciding on Monday that it will not take the matter any further.

That could, it has been suggested, delay the testing of a digital communications system which has been adopted by four in every five UK police forces.

The proposals, submitted by Airwave/MM02, were considered by members of Angus Council’s development control committee two weeks ago and, despite being recommended for approval by planning director Alex Anderson, the committee deferred making a decision until their next meeting.

As a potential “bad neighbour” development — concerns have been expressed from many quarters regarding the possible health implications of the TETRA communications system — the council is also obliged to give the local community the opportunity to make representations regarding the proposals.

In his report to the earlier meeting, Mr Anderson said he was satisfied the hotel was an appropriate location for the masts, which would form an integral part of a new secure digital communications network for the emergency services, and that installing them as replica flagpoles would lessen the visual impact.

As has been the case with previous applications in Carnoustie, and across the country, the application has met with strong local resistance and the council has already received more than 270 letters objecting to the plans.

In addition to individual expressions of concerns, the council has received objections from Carnoustie Golf Club, the Carnoustie Business Association and the Carnoustie Golf Links Management Committee, all of whom have stated that the hotel in not the right setting for the masts.

Carnoustie Business Association chairman Bill Brand said, “We were aware that this application would have to notified to the public as a potential bad neighbour development as the association will continue to fight it.

“Angus Council has a stated policy of rejecting applications for masts on their properties but, as the hotel stands on land owned by the council, there should be no exception made in this case.

“The people of Carnoustie were successful in their campaign to have the previous application for a TETRA mast at the Taymouth Works turned down and this current plan is for an alternative to that one.

“As far as we are concerned this is still not a suitable site for these masts — whether or not they are disguised as flagpoles — and we hope the members of the development control committee do the right thing again when they come to reconsider the application and throw it out.

“The hotel is one of Carnoustie’s most prominent buildings, seen by thousands of visitors every year, and the last thing we want to see sprouting from the top of it is a couple of telecommunications masts.

“There are plenty of other places these masts could be located in the rural areas outside Carnoustie and I just don’t see why they have to put them right in the middle of the town.”

Full details of the Airwave/MM02 plans can be viewed at Angus Council’s ACCESS office in High Street, Carnoustie, and any objections should be addressed to Mr Anderson at the council’s headquarters in Forfar within the next two weeks.