§ 68. Mr. J. Edwardsasked the Postmaster-General what was the size of the waiting list for telephones in each telephone area in Great Britain and Northern Ireland at 30th September, 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. BevinsThe figures for individual telephone areas are given below.
The waiting list for telephones on 30th September, 1959, was 51,980, this being 1.1 per cent. of the total number of subscribers in the United Kingdom. Three hundred and eighty-nine thousand six hundred and three telephone connections were made during the past twelve months, and the waiting list was reduced by 23,000.
I cannot say when it will be possible for the connection of telephones to be put in hand immediately on request. Our ability to do this depends on the capital resources available and the level of future demand. What I can say, however, is that connection of nearly 90 per cent. is put in hand as soon as 66W the request for telephone service is received.
Following are the figures:
Telephone Area Waiting List (30th September, 1959) Waiting List as a percentage of total number of subscribers Aberdeen 241 0.4 Bedford 772 1.7 Belfast 1,391 1.9 Birmingham 3,409 2.6 Blackburn 676 1.1 Bournemouth 84 0.1 Bradford 405 0.5 Brighton 654 0.6 Bristol 161 0.2 Cambridge 477 0.9 Canterbury 147 0.2 Cardiff 1,798 2.7 Chester 687 1.4 Colchester 155 0.4 Coventry 1,935 3.3 Dundee 59 0.1 Edinburgh 106 0.1 Exeter Nil Nil Glasgow 1,216 0.8 Gloucester 398 0.9 Guildford 1,106 2.0 Lancaster 303 0.7 Leeds 596 0.7 Leicester 584 0.8 Lincoln 1,048 2.1 Liverpool 324 0.2 London— Centre Nil Nil City Nil Nil East 2,262 1.5 North 2,379 1.3 North West 1,306 0.7 South East 1,079 0.5 South West 4,362 1.8 West 3,622 1.9 Manchester 3,060 1.6 Middlesbrough 669 1.4 Newcastle-on-Tyne 1,151 1.2 Norwich 43 0.1 Nottingham 738 0.8 Oxford 1,905 3.5 Peterborough 74 0.2 Plymouth 31 0.1 Portsmouth 906 1.7 Preston 811 1.2 Reading 1,617 2.6 Scotland West 1,556 1.8 Sheffield 833 1.2 Shrewsbury 420 1.0 Southampton 128 0.3 Southend-on-Sea 824 1.6 Stoke-on-Trent 9 — Swansea 597 1.6 Taunton — — Tunbridge Wells 479 0.8 West Midland 2,146 2.9 York 329 0.7