Political Opinion with Alison Bennett MP: My call for better signal in Mid Sussex

Many residents and parish councillors brought up the issue of mobile signal with me during my summer tour. This did not come as a surprise, as I too have had to contend with poor mobile connectivity, and a couple of years ago I changed networks to get better reception in my village.

With our reliance on mobile phones only increasing, last month I asked for your experiences across Mid Sussex in an online survey. The results paint a stark picture of the serious consequences of living with poor, or even non-existent, signal.

Across the whole constituency, 69% of respondents said they usually have between 0-1 bars of data. Villages like Cuckfield appeared to be the worst effected, with 97% of respondents living there saying they don’t ever really have more than 0-1 bars, whilst 65% of them can ‘only rarely’ make phone calls.

More generally, people told me that they are often unable to log into accounts as they cannot receive access codes sent via SMS. This makes it really hard to access online services like their NHS app at home. They have missed important calls from their GP, their children's schools, or during an emergency.

This is not just an inconvenience but could cause real harm. People should have the reassurance that, in an emergency, their call will connect and help will arrive. It seems incredible that Mid Sussex, which is by no means out in the sticks, should be stuck in this situation.

On Monday, I was hoping to put your challenges to Ministers in the House of Commons. Unfortunately, the debate had to be postponed because events in Venezuela rightly needed to take precedence. However, I remain on the case and will endeavour to make the case for better mobile signal to both the government and mobile operators in the year ahead. If you would like to share your experiences with me, then please do get in touch by email: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk