A hi-tech police radio system coming to Oxfordshire next July is a waste of money, say MPs.

A Parliamentary spending watchdog claimed the Government had squandered hundreds of millions on an "unnecessarily advanced" network called Airwave.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee said the new system would improve cross-border communication between police forces but would not allow officers to communicate directly with the other emergency services.

Thames Valley Police, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service and O2, the communications company behind Airwave, have played down the committee's fears.

Airwave will cost Thames Valley Police £12.5m to implement. Nationally, the bill will be £1.5bn over 19 years.

"Airwave might be more sophisticated and expensive than it really needs to be," the committee's report stated.

"It is now nearly ten years since a Home Office review recommended a joint approach to the procurement of new systems for the police and fire services.

"But the emergency services within a particular area or region are still unable to communicate easily with each other during major incidents, and a solution is still a long way off."

Less advanced systems which allowed police, fire and ambulance services to communicate locally would cost the country £300m less, but contact between police forces would suffer, the report said.

Thames Valley Police held emergency meetings with O2 after 132 blackspots were found in the new radio system.

O2, formerly BT Cellnet, said it would work to meet the force's requirements.

Airwave was defended by the police, who said the system was definitely going ahead.

A spokesman for the Thames Valley force said: "As far as we're concerned, we're looking forward to introducing a service which provides an opportunity to greatly improve policing in Thames Valley."

Insp Martin Elliott, chairman of the Thames Valley Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said the present system was "well past its sell-by date".

He said: "It's been on its last legs for five years. We're looking forward to new equipment arriving."

Insp Elliot added it was more important to communicate with other forces to arrest offenders who had crossed borders, than to be able to radio other emergency services.

He also said the new radios could double up as mobile phones, using technology called TETRA (Terrestrial Truncated Radio), so police could call the fire service or paramedics to an incident.

Oxfordshire's chief fire officer John Parry said the ability of police and fire service control rooms to communicate was as important as mobile radio contact.

The fire service will be getting a new communications system paid for by the Government.

He was confident that it would cope with these demands.

Airwave spokesman Mark Ede said police would be able to contact other emergency services as easily as at present, and Airwave technology might lead to a much better service.