LADY Diana Brittan, wife of Sir Leon Brittan, the European commissioner and former Tory MP for Richmond, is leading a consortium of business people in a bid for a new North Eastern radio station, Crystal Fm, covering a large part of North Yorkshire.

That includes Wetherby, Green Hammerton, Ripon, Boroughbridge, Thirsk and Northallerton.

The application for a licence from the Radio Authority must be submitted by March 10. If approved - and there are believed to be seven or eight other organisations preparing to apply - then Crystal fm will aim to complement existing stations such as Century, Metro and TFM.

The plan will be to broadcast a blend of easy listening music, news and information to around two million listeners.

Lady Brittan, who lives in Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales, is non-executive chairman of Rathbone CI, a Manchester-based national provider of training and skills for young people with moderate learning difficulties and long-term unemployed adults.

She is national president of the Townswomen's Guilds, a member of the Lord Chancellor's advisory committee on legal education and conduct and deputy chairman of the City of London Bench.

For seven years she was deputy chairman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and, for a similar period, was a commissioner of the Equal Opportunities Commission, including three years as deputy chairwoman of the commission.

Sharing her time between North Yorkshire, Brussels and London, she is a trustee or board member of a number of charities and organisations linked to social, education and European issues. In the north east, she is president of the Anglo-French Business Club.

One of founders of the Crystal fm consortium is David Sheppard, a Newcastle management and marketing consultant.

He said: "We plan stress-free listening featuring the melodic and memorable hits from the 1950s through to today for a prime audience of 25 to 55-year-olds who want an easy-listening sound.

"Punctuated by incisive local, national and international news, weather reports and travel information, the daily schedule will be presented in a non-intrusive style which will allow the music to speak for itself. Our ambition is to bring a daily sparkle to the lives of the people of the North East."

No licence applications have yet reached the Radio Authority, which will approve a licensee, probably in July, but a spokesman for Crystal fm said: "We believe that we will have seven or eight rivals."

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