Thousands of Shropshire’s farmers and rural residents will be hoping that a new Westminster law will improve mobile phone service where they live, says the Lib Dem parliamentary hopeful for Ludlow.

South Shropshire candidate Chris Naylor is backing the bill and is calling for residents to let him know of mobile phone reception problems locally.

Mr Naylor, who is pictured by his local phone mast, said he and others living in rural areas around the Long Mynd struggle to get any consistent mobile phone connection, despite his home being only two miles from the local mast.

"Indeed my signal has reduced not improved in recent years," Mr Naylor said.

"Many farmers here have to resort to private sector alternatives, causing extra expense, and often with less reach than a good mobile signal. And of course walkers and rescue teams can encounter seriously difficult conditions high up on the Mynd, and they need a good signal too.”

“So I’m backing this Bill and hoping the Government sees sense and backs it too."

Presenting her new Bill in the House of Commons, Helen Morgan, MP for North Shropshire said there are hundreds of "not-spots" across Shropshire, where people are unable to get any phone signal.

Ms Morgan said she wanted the Rural Roaming Bill to help rural communities and businesses by boosting phone signal, banishing black spots, and obliging firms like BT, O2, and Three to work together to make sure there is signal provided to all areas when that is the only option.

With concerns raised that the current withdrawal of the copper landline network, which is being overtaken by fibre, may leave rural residents with little or no phone service, Ms Morgan said that, if landline networks are to be reformed, the Government should quip rural areas with the ability to access mobile signal as fairly as their urban counterparts first. 

"Otherwise this is an accident waiting to happen," she said.

Mr Naylor is inviting local South Shropshire residents to let him know at chris.naylor@ssld.org.uk about problems with mobile phone reception, concerns about the withdrawal of the copper landline network, and for suggestions on how to do things better.