In reply to TNF Gardener's letter, Geography at sea (Oxford Mail, March 2), I can explain why areas away from the Thames Valley are included in our Thames Valley Tonight news on ITV1.

It is because the transmitter which serves south Oxfordshire is situated in North Hampshire, and covers an area from Farnborough, Aldershot and Bracknell in the east across to Andover and Salisbury Plain in the west.

Areas as far south as the New Forest and Southampton can also be served from the transmitter.

But they have their own local news fed from low-power relay stations, so there should be no excuse to include Southampton news in this programme.

It is a large and difficult geographical area to cover properly, without bringing in areas not associated with the Thames Valley.

My guess is these areas feel just as left out as we do in Oxfordshire.

We are lucky in Oxford to be served by a transmitter centrally located in the county, but this feature is being squandered by ITV1 by lumping Oxfordshire with other areas.

I wonder what happened to the other parts served by the Central News South region, namely Cheltenham, Gloucester and Hereford?

My guess is they have been put with the West Midlands news, and are probably as fed up as we are.

MIKE STICKLEY, Rose Avenue, Abingdon