§ Mr. Morganasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, following the erection of a British Broadcasting Corporation television mast in the neighbourhood of Cerrig-y-Drudion, Clwyd, and designed to serve the whole of the Uwchaled area, he will take steps to improve television reception in Llangwm and the surrounding district.
§ Mr. WhitelawThe primary responsibility for extending and improving the coverage of the UHF television services rests with the broadcasting authorities, who are currently undertaking phase II of the UHF engineering programme which is designed to extend UHF coverage to communities with permanent populations of 500 or more. In a reply to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice (Sir P. Wall) on 20 May 1980, I announced my approval to a further phase of the programme, known as phase III, which is intended to extend coverage to groups of less than 500 wherever it is reasonably practicable for this to be done.
I understand that the new relay station at Cerrig-y-Drudion, which is being provided under phase II, will not be able to serve the Llangwm area because of intervening terrain. I also understand that the unserved population at Llangwm will be too small to make the provision of a separate relay station practicable under phase II or III. In these circumstances the possibilities open to the people of Llangwm are a wired distribution system or, if this is not practicable or economic, a 'self-help' transmitter. The arrangements for 'self-help' transmitter schemes were also set out in my announcement on 20 May 1980.