Tower needed for planned alternate ?

[buzzc152]

Hi
Straight forward question ; do you need to have an active/manned/open ATC tower at an airfield for it to be used as a PLANNED alternate ? Obviously common sense would suggest yes but does EU Air Ops require it ?
It's probably a bit more common in the US to use airfields out of hours where they have pilot controlled lighting etc.
The example I came across was a flight from UK to to ESGG on a sunday evening. Planned alternate was ESGJ but NOTAM says no ATC after 1930z.
Thoughts ?

[Nightstop]

Suitable Air Traffic Services and Rescue & Fire Fighting Services (RFFS) are just two of the criteria for an Approved Aerodrome. If there’s no ATC, there’s very little chance of RFFS being present. So ESGJ was an unsuitable aerodrome in your example.

[corrigin]

What Nightstop said.