Mixed messages

Mixed messages from the Thom(p)son Twins on the future of BBC local radio this evening. Mark Thompson was rather oblique with the Public Accounts Committee.....

"Local radio is an incredibly precious service, and if you look at the services as a whole, local radio is one of the most protected of all BBC services [surely not - that honour falls jointly to BBC1 and Radio 4, with BBC Alba a close third, doesn't it ?] The BBC Trust is currently asking the BBC about local radio and I am quite sure the Trust and management will listen very carefully to what the public has got to say about it. If we press ahead with the proposals in their current form I would still expect to keep a really close eye on what's going on in terms of the quality, range and effectiveness of local radio and if we felt that it was dropping we would do something about it. We don't want to preside over the decline of local radio."

Meanwhile, his number 2 Caroline Thomson told an audience at BAFTA "If we had to reinstate the money (cut from local radio budgets), we'd have to cut something else. But it's not out of the question".

It looks like the pressure will be kept up in Parliament later this week, with Chi Onwurah MP for Newcastle Central bringing forward a debate on the impact of DQF cuts in her area - not just Radio Newcastle, Tees and Cumbria, but the cuts to Inside Out current affairs teams and weather forecasters. Watch this space for timing.