AN emergency meeting was held yesterday over the future of RAF Fylingdales.

The meeting was called by the North York Moors National Park Authority following Thursday's announcement by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon that a "memorandum of understanding" had been signed with the US to upgrade the North Yorkshire radar base.

Park authority chief executive Andy Wilson said it had not been officially informed about the decision.

It was expecting to submit detailed views on the project to the MoD before an agreement was reached.

He said: "Members of the authority are disappointed we have not had the chance to get back to them. We were expecting to have a further chance to comment on the proposal before it was finally approved."

The MoD has assured the authority the Government has no plans to base missile interceptors or X-band radar at Fylingdales, but Mr Wilson said members wanted more guarantees about the future of the base.

"We wanted a chance to ask the MoD for long-term assurances on the site," he said. "Assurances given to us say they have no plans to do anything there, but it is a bit different to saying they are not going to do it. They could decide that they have got plans to do it tomorrow.

"There are also issues about ongoing health checks and things like that which we wanted to press them on."