Council leader in plea to BBC Director General about local services

The leader of Shropshire Council has written to the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, to urge him to reconsider making cuts to local radio stations. 

The BBC is cutting its budget by 20% over the next five years, and one of the proposals on the table is reducing the output of local services, like Radio Shropshire. 

Councillor Keith Barrow was keen to put his views to the BBC’s senior decision-makers as soon as he could following the announcement of the plans on Thursday 6 October 2011. 

In his letter to Mr Thompson, Keith points out that the local media are extremely important in holding public organisations to account, and are a “vital part of the democratic process”.  Part of the letter reads: 

“As leader of Shropshire Council, which itself has to save £76 million over the next three years, you might expect me to have a somewhat difficult relationship with the local media at present.  Whilst that is true in some respects, I truly value local BBC services like Radio Shropshire which are enormously important and respected in the communities they serve. 

“They are a vital part of the democratic process, and Radio Shropshire is very adept at holding us public servants to account.  I have ‘enjoyed’ countless lively debates on the radio about various policies and issues being proposed by the council, and that is an integral part of local democracy.”

The full letter reads:-

Dear Mr Thompson (Mark Thompson, Director General) 

Following the announcement on Thursday 6 October of the major cuts proposed by the BBC over the coming years, I felt impassioned to write to you in support of our local radio station, BBC Radio Shropshire. 

As leader of Shropshire Council, which itself has to save £76 million over the next three years, you might expect me to have a somewhat difficult relationship with the local media at present.  Whilst that is true in some respects, I truly value local BBC services like Radio Shropshire which are enormously important and respected in the communities they serve. 

They are a vital part of the democratic process, and Radio Shropshire is very adept at holding us public servants to account.  I have ‘enjoyed’ countless lively debates on the radio about various policies and issues being proposed by the council, and that is an integral part of local democracy. 

As well as the direct contact I have with BBC Radio Shropshire during my work as a councillor, I value the service as a resident myself.  The mixture of local news and more light-hearted features, along with excellent local sports coverage, is a regular accompaniment to my day. 

I appreciate you are in a difficult position, and changes have to be made somewhere, but I would urge you to avoid cutting back on local radio services because they are so important to their local communities.  For many people in Shropshire – particularly the elderly and those in more isolated areas – their local BBC radio is truly a lifeline and sometimes their only link to the rest of the community. 

Please don’t put that at risk. 

Yours sincerely

Keith Barrow.