§ Mr. Critchleyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make an announcement about further local radio stations.
§ Mr. WhitelawFollowing my announcement on 25 July that I was making the second report of the Home Office local radio working party available for public comment, a large number of organisations and individuals have written to me setting out their views on the working party's proposals on locations for further local radio stations.
I have decided in the light of these comments to give my approval in principle to independent local radio stations at 14 of the 15 locations recommended by the working party. These are Ayr, Barnsley, Bristol, Bury St. Edmunds, Guildford, Leeds, Leicester, Londonderry, Luton/Bedford, Newport, Preston/Blackpool, Swindon, Worcester/Hereford and Wrexham/Deeside. I intend to give further consideration to the proposal for an independent local radio station to serve Canterbury/Dover. I accept in principle the need for an ILR station in the East Kent area but wish to consider its location and coverage further.
I have also given my approval in principle to a BBC local radio station at 708W Plymouth and to medium frequency assignments for the BBC services at Aberdeen and Londonderry.
For the future, the working party will continue to prepare proposals for my consideration, for the further development of local radio, by stages, over the United Kingdom as a whole and will publish reports from time to time.