HC Deb 04 March 1959 vol 601 cc445-6
32. Mr. C. Hughes

asked the Postmaster-General if he will state the number on the waiting list for telephones in the Chester and North Wales areas; what percentage this forms of the total number of subscribers; and how this compares with the national average.

Mr. K. Thompson

In the Chester telephone area, which includes North Wales, 995 applications are on the waiting list, excluding those under inquiry or in course of being met. This is just over 2 per cent. of the total number of subscribers in the area. The figures for the City of Chester are 70 and 0.9 per cent., respectively. In the United Kingdom as a whole, 67,808 applications are waiting.

This is 1.5 per cent. of the total number of subscribers.

Mr. Hughes

In view of what the Minister has said and also of the very high incidence of unemployment in certain areas in North Wales, will he not consider accelerating this work and thereby killing two birds with one stone?

Mr. Thompson

We are doing a very great deal in that area. The hon. Member and the House might like to know that over 3,500 telephones were connected in that area last year. We hope to do as well in the current year. We are also putting new equipment into fifteen exchanges in the next twelve months. New cables are being laid in nine different areas.