HC Deb 12 March 1958 vol 584 cc405-6
34. Mr. F. Noel-Baker

asked the Postmaster-General what further steps he will take to lessen interference with television reception in the Swindon area.

Mr. Marples

The general position remains as stated in answers given to the hon. Member on 21st and 22nd January. In a current case, in which the hon. Member is interested, the firm whose apparatus is causing some interference intends to replace it by apparatus of an improved design. This will inevitably take some time, but the firm are cooperating with us in interim measures to minimise the trouble.

Mr. Noel-Baker

While thanking the Postmaster-General for that Answer, if I give him the complaints of 450 people which have reached me since the Question was put down, will he look into them? Would he like to express his thanks, which I am sure are due to the very co-operative firm which he mentioned in his Answer?

Mr. Marples

I am certain that the firm will co-operate; it has shown every desire so to do. I think that the complaints which the hon. Member has received have largely been the result of a letter inserted in a local newspaper asking for complaints, not, I agree, by the hon. Member himself, but I think by a man who has some connection with his local party.

Mr. C. R. Hobson

Does not the right hon. Gentleman think it is about time that there was full implementation of the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1949, which was introduced by the Labour Administration and would put an end to a tremendous amount of this interference to both television and V.H.F. reception?

Mr. Marples

I shall be grateful to receive any suggestion from the hon. Member on any step which he thinks we can take. The difficulty in this case is technical rather than administrative.

Mr. Noel-Baker

I am sure the Postmaster-General did not wish to imply that there was any political angle to this problem. I assure him that there is not. Is he aware that large numbers of listeners, irrespective of party politics, have been very much concerned with this matter and will appreciate the help that he and others can give in it?

Mr. Marples

We shall give all the help we can. We shall look into any genuine complaint, from whichever party it comes. All I was saying was that the complaints were encouraged by a certain letter which appeared in a newspaper asking for complaints to be sent in.

Forward to