RADIO signal experts could be called to Addingham to try and sort out the long-term problem of poor FM reception.

Parish councillors are angry at BBC replies to their appeal for a better signal in the village and have resolved to write to their local MP to ask for help.

After receiving a request for an improvement to radio reception, BBC bosses wrote back telling villagers they had to wait until digital radio became widespread.

At a recent meeting, parish councillor Danny Palmer described the BBC's reply as 'woeful.'

Coun Lisle Richardson said: "We are years away from digital radio. For 40 years we have not had satisfactory reception in the village, I don't see that in another 40 years we will have digital radio."

The letter from BBC officials said that the Corporation's FM transmitter building programme had been halted in 1997, offering no immediate prospect of improvement to the signal in the village.

Poor reception in some areas in the village is thought to be caused because Addingham is located in a hollow. Parish councillors said that the radio signal received by the village came from a transmitter near Otley.

Parish council chairman Alan Jerome is to send a copy of the BBC letter to Labour MP for Keighley and Ilkley Ann Cryer to enlist her help.

"Parliament is the body that influences the decisions of the BBC. If we lived in the South East of England we would be getting good FM reception," said Coun Jerome.

He said he was particularly concerned about villagers who were partially sighted and relied on radio for their entertainment.

Coun Jerome said: "Once again we are losing out, as we do so often in the village of Addingham, because we are a backwater - we will ask Ann Cryer for her comments."

He added: "To people who are partially sighted who depend on radio for their entertainment, that letter is a disaster."

Parish councillors will also ask the BBC to send an engineer to the village to see what people can do to improve radio reception.

Coun David Pratt said: "We could get an official to explain in layman's terms how to get the best out the signal."

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