By Claire McCormack

SOME 35,000 PEOPLE in Dundee and North East Fife are served by a transmitter which continues to carry only analogue signals —denying them digital terrestrial television for another four years.

After numerous complaints from constituents in his Dundee Tay Bridges Ward, Councillor Fraser Macpherson has written to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Earlier this year, Mr Macpherson raised concerns with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport about what he has termed a “Freeview lottery.”

In response, the Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism, James Purnell, has confirmed to Mr Macpherson that services will not be extended to include them until the Grampian TV “analogue switch-off” date of 2010.

Mr Purnell said he appreciates the frustration of residents who cannot receive digital terrestrial television but that the reason for this “is simply the lack of available frequencies.”

He said, “Nationally, frequency allocation is very restricted due to the number of existing analogue signals that are in use.

“It would only be upon the release of these frequencies, after the cessation of analogue broadcasting, that coverage for digital terrestrial television can be increased to reach 98.5%, the same level as current analogue television coverage.”

The digital switchover plan was “not decided by Government but by broadcasters, multiplex operators and Ofcom, and was based on technical criteria,” he added.

Mr Macpherson said, “The continuing failure to convert the transmitter to also carry digital signals means that virtually all residents in my ward in the West End and city centre cannot receive digital terrestrial television, along with thousands of other Dundee citizens in Craigiebank, much of Broughty Ferry, other parts of the city and in North Fife.”

Many residents in the Charleston area of the city also cannot receive digital terrestrial signals as the Camperdown relay transmitter, like Tay Bridge, carries analogue signals only.

Mr Macpherson said that, while he accepted that the final digital switchover plan had been based on the technical data available at the time, the whole “analogue to digital” process had not been thought through by government early enough, which had resulted in this “postcode lottery” for the next four to six years across the UK.

“I have now written to the Prime Minister pointing out what a mess the government’s digital switchover project has proved to be.

“I have told him that it is simply unacceptable that it’s pot luck depending on your postcode whether or not you will get Freeview this side of 2010 or 2012 and the date it eventually arrives depends where you live in the UK.

“The simple reality is that the government didn’t think the process through early enough.

“The main transmitters, like those at Tealing (Angus transmitter for Grampian TV) and Burntisland (Craigkelly transmitter for Scottish TV) were converted for digital early on, without thought as to how those served by the smaller relay transmitters were to be converted.

“It was only well down the road of the process that the penny dropped that more than 25% of the population had no chance of getting digital terrestrial TV until the analogue signal was switched off.”

Mr Macpherson said he had advised the Prime Minister that many residents feel that it is completely unfair that many TV licence payers are simply not getting the digital services others receive.

Tay Bridge is one of about 20 transmitters in the UK that serve populations of more than 30,000 people but still do not broadcast digital pictures.

Tay Bridge is number 12 on the list in terms of population, the first being Ebbw Vale in Wales.

Mr Macpherson said there was great concern that the “digital switchover” plan had essentially created two classes of viewer.

“I have said to Mr Blair that its unacceptable that the extended period leading up to digital switchover means that viewers can wait up to five years more until they will be able to receive the digital service others already enjoy.”