§ 76. Captain CAZALETasked the Postmaster-General whether his attention has been drawn to the lack of telephone facilities at Goatacre, Wiltshire, and the difficulty and inconvenience to which the inhabitants of that village are placed in regard to telephonic facilities; and whether he will take steps to have an exchange box erected in that locality?
§ Viscount WOLMERThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative, and my right hon. Friend has offered to provide a telephone kiosk under a guarantee of £9 a year.
§ Captain CAZALETIn view of the fact that a guarantee of only £6 is at stake and of the very considerable profits made by the Post Office, can the Noble Lord see his way to meet the convenience of the people in this area?
§ Viscount WOLMERIf people would use the telephone six times a day, they would have to pay no guarantee.
§ Mr. MACKINDERIs it right or fair to ask local authorities to guarantee anything in order to provide villages with the ordinary amenities, which they ought to have for safety and other needs?
§ Viscount WOLMERIf the local authorities did not pay the rent of the telephones, the loss would be borne by the other subscribers.
§ Mr. MACKINDERIs the Minister aware that in the same locality there are telephone kiosks making a profit, and should not one balance another?
§ Viscount WOLMERWe work upon an approximate estimate of whether we think a telephone is going to be profitable. We do not think that it is fair to erect them at the cost of the ordinary telephone service.
§ 77. Mr. HAMMERSLEYasked the Postmaster-General if he is aware that it is proposed to disconnect Stockport telephone subscribers resident in Heaviley and Cale Green wards from the Stockport automatic telephone exchange and connect them to a new exchange of the manual type to be known as the Hazel Grove exchange; that this proposed change is resented by the subscribers; that it is a retrograde step involving the replacement of efficient automatic telephone communication by the old-type manual communication with all its delays and inconvenience; that it involves a discrimination between residents in one part of Stockport compared with residents in another part of the borough; that the main interests of these subscribers are in the town of Stockport; that Stockport residents residing in Cale Green and Heaviley requiring to telephone to the police or to the fire brigade, doctors to their patients or the infirmary, business men to their offices, and tradespeople to their customers, will have to make a trunk call; and will he have the matter examined and in the meantime give instructions that no subscriber enjoying the benefits of the Stockport automatic telephone exchange shall be removed therefrom?
§ Viscount WOLMERThe growth of the service has rendered it necessary to 1406 divide the extensive area now served by the Stockport exchange and to provide a new exchange at Hazel Grove to serve that portion which lies outside the local fee area of Manchester. The provision of automatic equipment at the new exchange would involve prohibitive cost. When the new exchange is open, subscribers will be charged for their calls in accordance with the general tariff. Subscribers residing in Cale Green and Heaviley who will be connected to the new Hazel Grove exchange will pay a reduced rental and will only be charged one local call for a call to anyone connected to Stockport telephone exchange. A two unit call will be charged for calls to the central portion of Manchester. The delimitation of telephone exchange areas is necessarily determined by plant considerations and it not infrequently results that municipal and telephone boundaries do not coincide. There is no ground for apprehension that an efficient service will not be available.
§ Mr. HAMMERSLEYDoes the Noble Lord think that a policy which takes telephone subscribers from an automatic telephone exchange and puts them on to an old-fashioned manual exchange, and separates some residents in the same town from their telephone exchange, is a good method of developing the telephone service?
§ Viscount WOLMERThe Stockport automatic exchange is one of the older type of automatic exchanges and is not the sort that the Post Office now employs, and the manual exchange, we are advised, is the most economical method of arranging for the telephone extension in this area.
§ Mr. MARDY JONESWhat is the cost of setting out this long question?
§ Mr. SPEAKERExcept for its length that consideration does not apply to this question more than to any other.