And still more media coverage...

The media site, Journalism.co.uk, has also picked up on last Friday's Newswatch broadcast and published a story on the campaign. You can read it here.

Only 5 days late...

Earlier this year, we reported how the BBC was a whole week late reporting on the "scandal" of the road markings at Chester's newly revamped railway station.

Aunty has done it again, albeit slightly quicker this time. Today's groundbreaking news on the BBC website concerns the collapse of the ancient city Walls. This event happened on the afternoon of Thursday 3 April and was duly reported in the weekly Chester Chronicle the very next day. The council put out its own press release yesterday and today's free edition Midweek Chronicle has a further update on the state of the Walls.

Interestingly, the BBC report acknowledges that the collapse happened last week, so why has it taken 5 days to publish the story?

While in London last week, recording the Newswatch debate with BBC head of local and regional programming, Tamsin O'Brien, I learned (to my complete astonishment) that the BBC does have a Chester correspondent based in the city. Her name is Kate Simms. Which rather begs the question of what exactly she is doing to earn her salary - a salary paid for by Cheshire licence payers. If she was filing news this late on a newspaper, she could expect to be fired. Yet because she reports for the BBC, we continue to get a shoddy service of either late news or no news. Once again, Cheshire licence payers are bottom of the heap when it comes to supplying an up-to-date news service.

Transmission truth

Good evening, viewers.

If you missed Newswatch tonight, don't forget it's still available on the internet until Friday 11 April. We'll be aiming to get the clip on YouTube asap, too.

I think we can all agree that there was the surprise announcement of a Cheshire news page in the offing. They have until January 2009 to make good on the promises.

In the meantime, the campaign is not going away. We'll be keeping up the pressure this year, particularly on the BBC Trust (the governing body) as it's their ultimate decision. So we'll still be blogging and reporting and keeping an eye on the state of play.

But there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel.

TV date confirmed

The TV debate is going ahead. BBC News 24 was in touch again earlier today to confirm filming on 3 April, with broadcasting expected on 4 April.

My opponent on the panel will be Tamsin O'Brien, head of regional and local programming for north-west England.

Stay tuned...

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.