Charlotte Barnes, Lib Dem Shropshire Councillor for Bishops Castle, has slammed Government proposals for the upgrade of the Digital Radio Network as it ignores much of South and West Shropshire. It also fails to take into account the impact that a wholesale switch over will have on rural areas.
Charlotte said “We are having a really raw deal in rural Shropshire at the moment – mobile phone signals are poor, broadband is indifferent and now the Government’s proposals will leave many residents without radio reception! In their ‘Framework agreement on local DAB expansion’* published the other day, the Government makes no provision for the upgrade of mast covering a huge swathe of the County stretching from Bishops Castle and Ludlow in the West over to Bridgnorth in the East. Given that this document speaks of a ‘switch over’ wholly to Digital towards the end of this decade this is very worrying. If we don’t get some investment before the change over, many will be left with a poor or non existent signal by the switch over.
“However, the problem is much more complicated than that in the hilly areas of the County. Digital (DAB) signal gives better reception but performs poorer than the current analogue systems in upland areas. Signals there are not good at present but may disappear altogether if FM is shut down.
FM SHUTDOWN
“My predecessor, Cllr Peter Phillips, campaigned long and hard on this issue including going to see Government Ministers on the topic. Its seems his efforts have been ignored and plans to phase out FM and introduce DAP press on regardless. I know There are no plans to upgrade the FM repeaters in Clee/Ludlow and Clun.
“In the first instance I will be writing to Dan Rogerson MP , The Rural Affairs Minister, on this issue. However, we might had to start campaigning in earnest shortly. With the lack of investment in broadband, mobiles and Radio it really feels like we are becoming second class citizens in rural Shropshire.”
*Framework Agreement between DCMS, BBC, Commercial local DAB multiplex operators, Arqiva and Ofcom on the expansion of the local DAB network 2015-16