Chester hits BBC headlines

Not one but TWO stories on Chester today, on BBC News Online and, at time of blogging, were the top two news items.

The first story concerns a violent stabbing. Oddly enough, I was aware of this story before it became public news - it happened around the corner from where I live and when I went in search of my missing cat this morning, there was crime-scene tape everywhere and the road was closed. A neighbour had heard the fight and called the police - he filled me in on the news this morning. All very depressing. Chester is not immune to inner-city violence fuelled by alcohol abuse and we've had a few incidents lately, but normally they are only covered in the Chester Chronicle, which is published on Fridays. If the BBC had not featured this, I could have been unaware for a week.

I'm half wondering if the coverage is down to my regular protests to Aunty, which are perhaps bearing fruit at last, or if it's down to increased coverage of violence generally, given the huge number of stabbings around the UK in recent weeks and months.

The second news story concerns the last-ever performance at the Gateway Theatre, which has now closed. There used to be three theatres here, now there's none. Although we are supposed to be getting a new one in 4 years' time... Chester is about to lose its only city-centre cinema shortly as well, which will leave the county capital with no cultural facilities at all. The Chronicle is currently spearheading a campaign to save the cinema, and the city council is now looking seriously at options to buy the cinema off the current owner and retain it as a cinema cum arts centre. Now that's news - but only in Chester. Surely it's worthy of some wider coverage?

The BBC responds...

This morning, I emailed the BBC yet again to try to find out why there is a lack of coverage on the BBC News Online website.

This is what I said:
"Dear Northwest Newsonline team
I am writing yet again to the BBC to try to find out why the BBC repeatedly refuses to cover Cheshire news properly online. I am not alone in my frustration at trying to find daily updates on the BBC news website regarding what is happening in my area.

At present (and has been the situation for as long as I can recall), Cheshire is the only English county not represented on the BBC's full website. If I type in my postcode, I am taken to the Merseyside/Liverpool page. News coverage is split between the pages for Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Staffordshire. Sometimes Cheshire news can even be found on the page for north-east Wales! As a licence payer, I find this wholly unacceptable.

I have written on at least 6 previous occasions to the BBC website team to find out why our local news coverage veers between poor and non-existent. Only once have I received a response, in which I was told "we don't know why this is so, we'll look into it". As I expected, I heard nothing further.

As I mentioned, I am not the only person who is fed up: other people in Cheshire with whom I have been in contact have asked the same question and been told "it is not viable" or "read the news pages for surrounding areas".

To this end, I would like to draw your attention to the following websites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/G1908 started by myself - I invite you to read the comments.
http://newsforcheshire.blogspot.com/ again started by myself. Please read the comments.
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/9179.html more signatures and comments (also on the petition forum).

There may not be that many signatures yet, but the comments are very indicative that Cheshire licence payers feel cut out of the loop when it comes to local news coverage by the BBC. Even the contact page where I found this email address to write to you says : "The team, which provides the latest news in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside, and the Isle of Man..." and Cheshire is missing yet again. It's hard to understand why such a large county seems to be routinely ignored. It's as if Cheshire is invisible. We all know the BBC has a tight budget these days but adding an extra webpage and keeping it updated really would not cost very much out of our licence fees. In fact, it's a very cheap option for keeping a county-wide population of almost a million people happy.

I would appreciate a response to this email and some positive action. If I don't hear from you, I will be stepping up action and speaking to my MP to have this issue raised at a higher level because it is simply unfair and unacceptable to deprive such a large part of England equality of coverage."

Incredibly, I received a reply within an hour. And even more unbelievably, the response was from Hugh Berlyn, the Editor for all the England news pages. This is what he had to say:

"I have been passed your email with regard to the provision (or lack of it) of a BBC News Interactive index dedicated to Cheshire news. I have been impressed with your campaign, blog and petition and will follow their progress with great interest.

I am sorry that you feel you have had unsatisfactory responses from the BBC in the past - and I am not confident that this response will offer any immediate satisfaction.

I can promise that the desire for provision of news for Cheshire is very much on the BBC's radar, but you will be aware that the BBC recently received a disappointing licence fee settlement from the Government. As a result of that all BBC priorities are currently under review - including news provision for Cheshire.

"Under review" means just that - no decisions have been made either way - but I can assure you senior managers are looking at what will be possible for the future.

Thanks again for your email."

The blog will be updated again when there is more to report. Watch this space!

More petition comments

"People in Cheshire pay the BBC TV Poll Tax like everyone else and should of course have their own website. In case your not aware the BBC has got international clearance for the use of FM channels for BBC Radio Cheshire including 90.2. Still no firm plans yet to use these channels, so community stations in Cheshire are struggling to find space on the dial to represent the county,something the BBC is failing to do on a daily bases."

"It is so frustrating having to go to BBC Merseyside, or BBC Manchester or BBC Staffordshire. Pretty poor show from the BBC for one of the most affluent areas in England."

"Although I live in Shropshire, my work takes me into Cheshire on an almost daily basis. Being in a different TV region, it is difficult to find out about news and events in the area I visit so often."

"It is anomalous that the otherwise excellent BBC website does not offer the appropriate level of service to a county of such commercial and tourist related importance."

"I live on Merseyside but Cheshire is not at all far away! So little coverage about our neighbouring county, and one in which many people originally from Merseyside live."

Bootle more important than Chester

Well, it's interesting to see that Aunty has decided to report on the £280 million Northgate redevelopment project in Chester. This has been a front-page discussion in the Cheshire media for several years now. It's a major story that has been dogged by heaps of controversy on an almost-weekly basis. But only now the funding is in place and officially announced has the BBC realised it can't really ignore it any longer...

And even more interestingly, while the report mentions new council offices on Gorse Stacks it doesn't mention the 4-year controversy over the building - known locally as the Glass Slug - which no one in Chester wants, bar the elected councillors who railroaded it through. Even Prince Charles has spoken out against the Slug, but Aunty remains deaf.

We also note that Bootle station, a minor outpost on the MerseyRail network in Liverpool, gets a report on its £4.25 million facelift. Yet Chester Station - the only one we have apart from Bache, which doesn't really count - is about to undergo its own massive refurbishment (more info here).This apparently is not deemed worthy of coverage by the Beeb.

Never mind, at least we have a wiki now - if you really want to know what's cooking in Cheshire, you'd better look there. Because the BBC sure isn't being fair to Cheshire licence payers...