Cuts to BBC local Radio “a nail in the coffin of local accountability” says councillor
A councillor has said that if proposed cuts to BBC local radio stations go ahead it would be “another nail in the coffin” of local accountability.
Coun Subash Sharma in Scarborough has said that proposed cuts to local BBC radio programming would be “another commitment lost to local democracy”.
The BBC has announced that it will be cutting 48 roles from local radio stations in England alongside plans for shared programming across stations after 2pm on weekdays.
There would be 10 “local programmes across England” between 6pm-10pm on weekdays, across the day on Saturday, and Sunday mornings.
A national “all-England” programme will be launched after 10pm across the week and on Sunday afternoons and evenings
North Yorkshire residents can pick up BBC local services on Radio Tees, Leeds, York and Cumbria depending on where they live. Radio York will have to share with Leeds, Radio Tees with Newcastle.
As part of the plans, there would still be dedicated local programming from all stations between 6am and 2pm.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We are committed to bringing audiences their favourite local output and we’ll continue to do so. We’ll confirm our programme plans for future schedules in due course.”
Cllr Sharma said that local media was “critical to creating a community” and added that proposed cuts could create “a vacuum”.
The Labour councillor, who is chairman of Scarborough Council’s Planning Committee said: “Since the Evening News stopped being published every night, there has been a vacuum there. And that vacuum has been filled by social media and really truculent people whose only job is to create uncertainty.”
As well as the BBC, Scarborough also has a commercial station like YorkMix called This is the Coast which provides local news.
Rhodri Talfan Davies, the BBC’s director of nations, said “The plans will help us connect with more people in more communities right across England, striking a better balance between our broadcast and online services and ensuring we remain a cornerstone of local life for generations to come.”
The BBC has said that “the changes will see around £19m reprioritised from broadcast services towards online and multimedia production, to keep pace with changing audience expectations”.
Story from the Local Democracy Reporting service, Funded by the BBC for all local media outlets. Written by Anttoni James Numminen
I only listen to local radio for the sports commentary’s other than that I listen to commercial stations online.
If you read local papers they are no better than social media, the ‘quality’ of local journalism is to cut and paste from other sources whilst sat in an office in the south of England. Either that or shameless advertising for local business in the guise of news. Local commercial radio is mostly advertising between old pop music tracks (as heard on builders radios regularly) or on the BBC you get banal public phone ins, so again not much to lose there.