§ Mr. J. Edwardsasked the Postmaster-General the size of the waiting list for telephones in each telephone area in Great Britain and Northern Ireland at 31st March, 1959; what proportion this bore in each case to the total number of subscribers in each area; and by what date, in each area respectively, he expects to reach the position in which requests for connection of a telephone can be put in hand immediately such requests are received.
§ Mr. MarplesFollowing is a statement of the number of applications held up pending the provision of additional cables or telephone equipment. In addition to the figures given in the table, there are16W some 80,000 applications in course of being met.
With regard to the second part of the Question, I have nothing to add to the Answer given to the right hon. Member's Question of 17th December last.
Telephone Area Waiting List (31st March, 1959) Waiting list as a percentage of total number of subscribers Aberdeen 246 0.4 Bedford 962 2.2 Belfast 1,349 1.9 Birmingham 3,764 2.9 Blackburn 847 1.4 Bournemouth 27 Nil Bradford 442 0.6 Brighton 561 0.5 Bristol 195 0.2 Cambridge 406 0.7 Canterbury 134 0.2 Cardiff 1,849 2.8 Chester 887 1.9 Colchester 241 0.6 Coventry 2,010 3.6 Dundee 49 0.1 Edinburgh 137 0.1 Exeter 5 Nil Glasgow 2,244 1.4 Gloucester 365 0.9 Guildford 1,015 1.9 Lancaster 285 0.7 Leeds 608 0.7 Leicester 724 1.1 Lincoln 971 2.0 Liverpool 485 0.3 London/Centre Nil Nil London/City Nil Nil London/East 3,473 2.3 London/North 2,923 1.7 London/North West 1,118 0.6 London/South East 2,525 1.2 London/South West 4,504 1.9 London/West 4,043 2.1 Manchester 3,858 2.0 Middlesbrough 670 1.4 Newcastle-on-Tyne 1,091 1.1 Norwich 63 0.2 Nottingham 951 1.1 Oxford 2,054 3.9 Peterborough 63 0.2 Plymouth 42 0.1 Portsmouth 906 1.8 Preston 1,196 1.8 Reading 1,579 2.6 Scotland West 1,617 1.9 Sheffield 827 1.2 Shrewsbury 473 1.1 Southampton 151 0.3 Southend-on-Sea 1,088 2.2 Stoke-on-Trent 27 0.1 Swansea 912 2.5 Taunton Nil Nil Tunbridge Wells 429 0.7 West Midland 2,574 3.6 York 297 0.6