Cheshire split finally reported by Aunty

About flaming time.

For the last 9-10 months or so, the 1 million residents of Cheshire have been learning of government plans to abolish Cheshire County Council and six district councils and merge them all, into either one or two unitary authorities.

It goes without saying that the proposals have been splashed all over the various local and regional newspapers in our county. But until today, the issue was virtually ignored by the BBC.

This is a major story that will cost millions of pounds and affect 1 million people yet Aunty considered it not worth covering. Until today.

Note that the BBC's coverage is on the Staffordshire news page. There's clearly no need to remind you that it's there because we do not have a dedicated page for Cheshire news. Oh, the irony of reporting such a massive story on the web page for a neighbouring county...

TV debate stirs regional media interest

Following Wednesday's post about the invitation to appear on Newswatch on BBC News 24, the media in the north-west have shown interest.

The regional news hub, How Do, has reported on the forthcoming TV debate. There has also been some interest at the Chester Chronicle, although it's unclear at this stage if they will actually run an article.

The campaign is busy right now doing lots of PR to try and maximise the opportunity offered by Newswatch to widen the discussion.

Stay tuned!

TV boost for campaign

The BBC has invited the News for Cheshire campaign to participate in a televised debate about local news coverage. This is a very exciting opportunity to push the campaign forward as I will be able to raise the campaign's pressing issue with a senior figure from the BBC who will be on the panel.

The programme is Newswatch, presented by Ray Snoddy. Filming will take place on Thursday 6 March and be broadcast the following evening.

Watch this space for further developments.

12 day tally

A quick count-up of Cheshire stories on BBC News online reveals that just a dozen have been reported since 31 January. One of those was the big story of Garry Newlove, which is still making headlines - his attackers have now been sentenced. The rest were fairly minor - a road crash here, a missing patient there, and a handful of stories on police force and fire brigade cuts.

Where is the real news? Is there really nothing happening out there?