HC Deb 26 March 1964 vol 692 cc159-60W
Mr. Malcolm MacMillan

asked the Postmaster-General what progress has been made towards providing very high frequency and television service in the Isle of Lewis; at what date this year service will be officially available in Lewis and Harris and in South Uist and Barra, respectively; and what special difficulties are now delaying the British Broadcasting Corporation's work programme in bringing service to those areas.

Mr. Bevins

The B.B.C. hopes to open its Melvaig station about the end of this year. From this station the B.B.C.'s V.H.F. sound and television services will be broadcast to Lewis and most of Harris. The same services will be broadcast to most of the remainder of Harris, to North and South Uist and to Barra from the B.B.C.'s Skye station which will pick up its signals from the Melvaig station. The B.B.C. hope to complete the Skye station early next year.

The principal reasons for the delay in opening these stations have been difficulty of access to the Melvaig site, protracted negotiation of rights of way for the access road now being built, and a particularly difficult choice of site in Skye from which to serve, not only most of Skye itself, but also the southern half of the Western Isles.