§ Mr. FrenchTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has any plans to amend the self-help transmitter scheme as a way of providing alternative television programmes to areas such as Gloucester.
§ Mr. RentonThe self-help transmitter scheme enables isolated communities not served by the BBC or IBA to construct at their own expense transmitters to relay existing television signals on spare UHF channels. Recently, a community group was licensed on an experimental basis to provide a transmitter offering an alternative to the regional service provided by the BBC-IBA transmitter. Further schemes of this nature will be considered in the light of the current experiment and once decisions have been taken on the possible alternative use of UHF frequencies.