Community radio applications invited in 43 areas

Ofcom has announced a list of 43 areas across the UK where it will accept new applicant for community radio licences.

The areas were previously revealed in September and were picked based on expressions of interest from individuals or groups wanting to apply for a licence.

Applications need to be received by 3pm on Tuesday 26th March 2019.

There’s no guarantee of a suitable frequency being available in every area listed, and the regulator says it will only consider applications for services to operate on FM. A non-refundable fee of £600 has to be paid to apply.

In some of the areas, where there is a small commercial radio station broadcasting from within a TSA of under 150,000, restrictions will be placed on the proportion of funding the community licensee can receive from advertising.

You can read the about the application process for this round of licensing in full on the Ofcom website – and a list of areas from where applications will be considered is shown below.

England
Albrighton and Cosford (Shropshire)
Amersham and Chesham and the surrounding area (Buckinghamshire)
Borough of Scarborough (North Yorkshire)
Burghclere (Hampshire)
Carlisle (Cumbria)
Chesterfield (North Derbyshire)
Maryport, Workington, Whitehaven, Egremont (Cumbria)
Clowne, Bolsover and Barlborough (Derbyshire)
Dover (Kent)
Durham (County Durham)
Eastleigh (Hampshire)
Faversham (Kent)
Ferndown, Wimborne Minster, Corfe Mullen and Holt (Dorset)
Hastings (East Sussex)
Grimsby, Mablethorpe, Trusthorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Chapel St Leonards,
Ingoldmells, Skegness (Lincolnshire)
Lowestoft and north east Suffolk
Lutterworth (Leicestershire)
Melksham (Wiltshire)
North Somerset
Northwich, Middlewich and Winsford (central Cheshire)
Portishead (Somerset)
Ryedale (North Yorkshire)
Shaftesbury and Gillingham (Dorset) and Semley (Wiltshire)
South Bucks District (Beaconsfield, Denham, Gerrards Cross, Iver, Stoke
Poges, Chalfont St Giles and Chalfont St Peter)
South east London/Borough of Croydon
Thornbury and district (Gloucestershire)
Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells (Kent)
Wallingford (Oxfordshire)
Wigan (Greater Manchester)

Scotland
Ayr (South Ayrshire)
Dundee
Dunfermline (Fife)
Edinburgh
Hamilton, Larkhall, Stonehouse (South Lanarkshire)
Kinross-shire
Livingston, Bathgate and Linlithgow (West Lothian)
Shotts (North Lanarkshire)

Northern Ireland
Ballymena (County Antrim)
Enniskillen (County Fermanagh)
Newtownabbey (County Antrim)
Omagh (County Tyrone)

Wales
Merthyr Tydfil (Mid Glamorgan)
Locations within the Vale of Clwyd; Kinmel Bay, Abergele