I have a message for Hugh Berlyn, editor for BBC News Online England - in the last two days, the number of petition signatories has increased five-fold and continues to rise. We have now passed the 200 mark.
Below are the latest comments people have added to their signatures. Note the huge number of demands for a dedicated Radio Cheshire as well as a news page for our county on the BBC website...
“It is simply unfair that Cheshire does not have its own radio station or proper BBC web coverage. We have found it very welcoming since moving here four years ago.”
“No more being a satellite county for other more famous places.”
“I support this petition wholeheartedly. It is most unfair that the fine residents of Cheshire do not have enough media coverage.”
“Cheshire should not only have its own website page, but also its own BBC Radio network. Macclesfield is marginalised on Radio Manchester and I am sure the inhabitants of other towns have the same problem.”
“We are not Scousers, we're from Cheshire instead.”
“Very poor coverage of Cheshire, those of us living away from the area struggle to get good news updates.”
“I think it is right for Cheshire to have its own BBC web page. Do people think that Cheshire is not important? We in the county do!”
“We need a voice in Cheshire.”
“Independence for Cheshire!”
“Come on, BBC, just sack Natasha Kaplinsky and you'll be able to afford it.”
“Cheshire has a wide area and it would be great to have a unified radio station for this great county.”
“Cheshire deserves its own media identity instead of being defined by Manchester and Liverpool.”
“Cheshire is a big county and should have its own station.”
“Please give us our own station, I am sick of listening to Radio Stoke!”
“Please get us off of Radio Stoke, and give us our own radio station.”
“We want good coverage for the Alex rather than listen to BBC Stoke.”
“It only seems appropriate to have some sort of coverage of our county!”
“We need it local.”
“Coverage of current affairs in Cheshire is extremely poor and needs to be rectified. The publication of a BBC Cheshire page would go some way to solving the problem. I pay my licence fee like anyone else and feel that I am entitled to decent coverage on news and sport in my area!”
“A dedicated Cheshire service is well overdue.”
“Amazing that Cheshire has such poor BBC coverage...”
“How Crewe falls under Radio Stoke i will never know – Crewe is Cheshire, Stoke is Staffordshire. You wouldn't expect to hear about Manchester news on Merseyside.”
“No proper coverage given to Crewe by Radio Stoke which is HEAVILY BIASED towards Stoke on Trent. As an example they have broadcast every single football match that Stoke City have played even when the other teams in their supposed area have been playing away from home. If we cannot have our own station for Cheshire please stop this very unfair biased practice, we are all licence payers.”
“Cheshire should have its own radio station. Pull your finger out, BBC.”
“Cheshire is bigger in population than Staffs, Salop and Cumbria, who all have their own BBC radio stations, its about time Cheshire had the same.”
“Please, please can we have a dedicated site for our local county.”
“I am appalled that this large, industrious and varied county has been shuffled into the Stoke and Staffordshire information slot where it is simply sublimed into oblivion. No doubt some controller down in London felt that old Cheshire was either too highbrow or too primitive to warrant its own identity. What a nerve!”
