Why the town of Whitehaven?

Lucy Rodgers
BBC News

The town's transmitter is being switched over a year early

The Cumbrian town of Whitehaven and its surrounding area is to host the first phase of the UK's digital switchover.

Around 25,000 residents of the West coast Georgian town and environs will see their old analogue signal switched off from 17 October, heralding the start of the UK's entry to the digital age.

Although famed for being the home of George Washington's grandmother and a favourite place of William Wordsworth, the blustery port area seems to have little to promote it as a technological test bed.

But those in the digital know say the town, in the district of Copeland, is ideally situated to lead the great digital rollout.

"It ticks all the boxes. It will have a very real benefit to the community Jon Steel, Digital UK's spokesman

A feasibility study by Digital UK, which is overseeing the switchover process, found the area had a good mix of households spanning rural and urban areas as well as poor terrestrial signals due to its remote location.

Residents also could not access digital services via rooftop aerials, so would benefit most from the switch.

Housing mix

Jon Steel, Digital UK's spokesman, explained that Whitehaven residents also showed they understood what changing to digital TV would mean in practical terms.

"We decided around a year ago that the sensible idea was to test responses in an area ahead of the full regional rollout programme.

"Whitehaven was one of a number of places we looked at - and it was chosen along with the surrounding area for a number of reasons.

Ford Ennals, chief executive of Digital UK, launched the rollout

"The programme of information provision about the switchover has gone on longest, so they had a head start on information.

"Therefore there is a general awareness."

Whitehaven's mix of communities and properties also lent itself to leading the rollout.

"There are rural and urban environments, as well as private and rented properties," said Mr Steel. "There are also blocks of flats, which have issues to do with shared aerials."

And finally, the area was chosen because residents cannot currently receive digital signals through their aerial and have poor analogue reception, and so will benefit most.

"It ticks all the boxes," said Mr Steel. "It will have a very real benefit to the community.

"People are looking forward to having a choice."

Deadline

Alan Cleaver, deputy editor of the Whitehaven News, said residents were generally pleased the switchover was beginning in western Cumbria.

"At the moment you can only receive about three or four TV channels in Whitehaven so most people are looking forward to it," he said.

"I think the problem has been without a specific deadline people are sort of in their minds saying I'll worry about it at a later date so I think an announcement about the date and the deadline will concentrate people's minds."

WHITEHAVEN Population of 25,500 Town has more than 250 listed buildings Birthplace of Mildred Gale, grandmother of George Washington One of the first post-renaissance planned towns in the country

And Joseph McAllister, Cumbria county councillor representing the Kells and Sandwith area of Whitehaven, said he expected the switch to go particularly smoothly in his patch.

Already, 80% of people in his area already accessed digital services through satellite providers, he said.

"It's not going to be a major change for most people here. Nobody has raised any issues with it so far."

And despite Whitehaven widely being seen as a test for the rollout nationally, Digital UK insisted that the Cumbrian launch was not just an experiment.

John Askew, regional manager for Digital UK in Copeland, said: "This is the beginning of the rollout for real."