Bilsdale transmitter: New mast erected by end of year - operator

An inquiry into the cause of a fire which destroyed the Bilsdale mast should be known in the next two weeks

TV and radio services disrupted after a fire destroyed a transmitter should be fully restored by the end of the year.

Operator Arqiva has said a new 1,030ft (314-metre) replacement for the Bilsdale mast will be complete before 2023.

Chief executive Paul Donovan said it would cut in half the time it would usually take to replace such a tower.

Mr Donovan has also said an inquiry into the fire's cause would conclude in two weeks.

The Bilsdale transmitter caught fire on 10 August leaving more than 600,000 homes across Teesside, County Durham and North Yorkshire without a signal.

Arqiva, which operated the mast on the North York Moors, demolished it and erected a temporary transmitter in September 2021, followed by a "more resilient" temporary structure in February 2022.

The original Bilsdale mast was damaged by fire and felled in a controlled explosion

North Yorkshire-based steel firm Severfield has been awarded the contract, thought to be worth tens of millions of pounds, to fabricate the new 200-tonne structure, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Severfield, which has previously worked on large-scale projects such as the London Shard, said it had been handed "tight timescales" to produce the structure in order that viewers across Yorkshire and the North-East get a full restoration of signals as soon as possible.

Mr Donovan said he was "very satisfied" with the progress being made on what "will ultimately be one of Britain's top 10 tallest structures".

He said: "We all realise the importance to people of getting this project finished so we can have service fully restored to what it was before."