Scottish wildlife, rural, and conservation groups call for an urgent review of the UK's Shared Rural Network program's Total Not-Spot (TNS) element due to ecological concerns.
A coalition of Scottish wildlife, rural, and conservation groups, including the John Muir Trust, Mountaineering Scotland, and RSPB Scotland, has called for an urgent review of the UK's Shared Rural Network program, specifically the Total Not-Spot (TNS) element. The program, introduced by the previous Conservative administration, aims to achieve 95% 4G mobile phone coverage in Britain, and collaborates with UK Government and mobile phone operators like O2 and Vodafone. However, the coalition argues that the approach has been "target-led" and "top-down," failing to consider whether rural communities need masts, and that ecologically fragile areas have been chosen to accommodate unnecessary masts, potentially causing irreparable damage to these special wild places. The coalition calls for a pragmatic approach to the programme, urging the government to review and reassess the use of financial resources behind the TNS element.