A mobile communications system comprising a plurality of relay nodes (802, 803), and a base station, the base station acting as a network controller and including a transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter being configured to transmit signals via a wireless access interface to the plurality of relay nodes and to one or more communications terminals, and the receiver being configured to receive signals via the wireless access interface from the plurality of relay nodes and from the one or more communications terminals, the base station configured to control a first relay node of the plurality relay nodes to transmit to one of the communications terminals signals representing data received from the base station or to receive signals representing the data from the communications terminal for transmission to the base station, upon first predetermined conditions being met, to transmit to the communications terminal an indication that a second relay node of the plurality of relay nodes is activated and is to relay signals between the communications terminal and the base station and to control the second relay node to transmit signals representing the data received from the base station to the communications terminal or to receive signals representing the data from the communications terminal for transmission to the base station, and to control the communications terminal to transmit a first signal representing at least a first part of the data to the first relay node for transmission to the base station, and to transmit a second signal representing at least a second part of the data to the second relay node for transmission to the base station, wherein the first predetermined conditions include an amount of data being transmitted or received by the first relay node being above a predetermined threshold. a plurality of relay nodes (802, 803), and a base station, the base station acting as a network controller and including a transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter being configured to transmit signals via a wireless access interface to the plurality of relay nodes and to one or more communications terminals, and the receiver being configured to receive signals via the wireless access interface from the plurality of relay nodes and from the one or more communications terminals, the base station configured to control a first relay node of the plurality relay nodes to transmit to one of the communications terminals signals representing data received from the base station or to receive signals representing the data from the communications terminal for transmission to the base station, upon first predetermined conditions being met, to transmit to the communications terminal an indication that a second relay node of the plurality of relay nodes is activated and is to relay signals between the communications terminal and the base station and to control the second relay node to transmit signals representing the data received from the base station to the communications terminal or to receive signals representing the data from the communications terminal for transmission to the base station, and to control the communications terminal to transmit a first signal representing at least a first part of the data to the first relay node for transmission to the base station, and to transmit a second signal representing at least a second part of the data to the second relay node for transmission to the base station, wherein the first predetermined conditions include an amount of data being transmitted or received by the first relay node being above a predetermined threshold.