HC Deb 12 February 1929 vol 225 cc220-1

The following Question stood upon the Order Paper in the name of Mr. NUTTALL:

43. To ask the Postmaster-General whether, seeing that up to the time that the telephone system at Hyde was made automatic all calls between Hyde and Manchester were charged at the 1d. rate, as it was calculated that the distance between these two towns was not more than seven miles, and that the moving of the telephone exchange, when the system was made automatic, placed the Hyde exchange outside the 1d. area, he is prepared to restore to the business communities of these towns the same charges which they would have had if no alteration in the system had been made?

Mr. R. W. SMITH

May I put this question on behalf of my hon. Friend?

Mr. SPEAKER

I presume the hon. Member has been asked to put this question by the hon. Member whose name is on the Order Paper?

Mr. SMITH

I have a letter from him here.

Sir W. MITCHELL-THOMSON

My hon. and gallant Friend is under a mis- apprehension in thinking that the telephone system at Hyde is automatic. I am very sorry that it is not possible in this, as in other cases of marginal areas, to depart from the strict application of the radial measurement rule. The Hyde exchange is situated outside the seven-mile radius from Manchester telephone centre and accordingly I cannot apply to it the rates proper to exchanges inside that radius. The effect of the change will be to raise the fees for calls to some exchanges in the Manchester area but to reduce the annual rentals by 10s.