Tetra replaces 1960s technology

Vociferous protests put back the launch of the system which will be extended throughout Cornwall and Devon over the next few months.

Critics are concerned about the health effects of radio waves.

Devon and Cornwall Police claim the system will help make the counties a safer place to live.

Hazard 'unlikely'

Police chiefs point to the Boscastle floods last year when search teams used the radio system to co-ordinate their post-flood operation.

Communications firm 02 Airwave, which operates the new technology, says while it accepts that nothing is totally risk free, it insists that Tetra technology is safe.

It points to a report by the National Radiologial Protection Board in 2001 which said it was "unlikely" that the signals from Tetra mobiles posed a hazard to health.

The report also said that exposure near Devon and Cornwall's 225 Tetra base stations, will be "small fractions" of guidelines.

Objections by Zennor Parish Council in Cornwall to a Tetra mast, have led to three failed attempts by 02 to secure planning permission for a structure near St Ives.