Even here in Pendle, where the beautiful countryside that surrounds us is never that far away from the more built-up areas, there are places where it is difficult or impossible to receive a signal.

And that leads Mr Pendle to wonder why, when a mobile phone could be the only way of raising an alarm in times of emergency in the countryside, no one has seen fit to find a solution to this problem.

In our own area, for instance, Mr Pendle is told signals cannot be received at Barley car park - two of his colleagues and another person all had difficulties on a recent visit.

The same goes if you happen to be in the shadow of Boulsworth Hill, and also in and around Salterforth.

Further afield, Mr Pendle has found his phone inoperative in the area around Ribblehead and the Three Peaks - so if he were to get into difficulties there, just how he would summon help is anyone's guess.

Why can we use mobile phones in built-up areas when much of the use is unnecessary, but not in out of the way places where such use can often be vital to a person in need?

Surely in 2008, any planning restrictions which prohibit the siting of transmitters in sensitive areas can be set aside to enable the equipment to be set up allowing signals to be received, and the mobile phone companies can design something for this which blends in with rural landscapes to restrict the visual impact to a minimum?

In some cases, where there are injured casualties, the availability of a signal could literally make the difference between life and death. Or is that stretching the bounds of credibility a little bit too far?


REGULAR readers will know Mr Pendle tends to scoff at surveys which are carried out for one reason or another.

But the results of one he stumbled across the other day made him stop and think they might, in some cases, get it right.

This one, carried out by office brokers and business psychologists (whatever they are), sought to find out what a person's desk said about them.

It found that a neat and tidy desk, as Mr Pendle's tends to be, is a sign of a highly conscientious individual who is well organised – and anyone who knows Mr Pendle will confirm just how much attention he pays to his personal organisation to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.