Results not just in but visible

It took a while, but finally all the votes were counted, the results were declared and the Tories took control of both the new unitary authorities of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester.

In another historic first, BBC News Online reported the election results on all three of the Manchester, Merseyside and Staffordshire pages across which Cheshire news is normally spread (if we actually get any).

After two years of campaigning for one solitary Cheshire news page, perhaps we should now be demanding two - one for each half of the county...

The question is, is Aunty up to the challenge?

Election? What election?

It's polling day today. Hundreds of councils across England and Wales are up for re-election and, in case you have been living in the Gobi desert for the last six months and hadn't heard, so is the Mayor of London. Ken, Boris, Brian, whoever... even in Wick (that's in the north of Scotland) they are probably aware of who the main mayoral candidates are.

Here in Cheshire, we are about to vote for our two new (and unwanted) unitary councils. Not that you'd know from reading BBC News Online. Aunty has barely reported on the change in the last year, a change that will affect a million people and split the county in two forever.

Today's BBC coverage just ignores Cheshire, as usual. The main story this morning focuses on the general situation, then switches to the fight for London. The electoral news on the Manchester page, where some Cheshire news occasionally gets shunted, ignores the split, as does the report on the Staffordshire page.

Early this morning, there was no news at all on the Merseyside page about the elections. It took until 8.22am for the BBC to acknowledge what's happening. Even then, we are only offered two measly sentences on this momentous change. It would be fair to say that anyone outside Cheshire probably has had no clue of the impending split because it has been so woefully under-reported. Only the county's many local papers have kept Cheshire inhabitants informed, in a fragmented manner. The BBC offers no information today on the number of seats up for election in either authority, which boroughs are disappearing for good alongside the County Council, or what the expected turnout might be.

Eight other unitary authorities will be created today in these elections: Shropshire (minus Telford and Wrekin), Bedford, Cornwall, County Durham, Exeter, Ipswich, Wiltshire and Northumberland. All these areas, however, have their own county news page on News Online, meaning licence-payers in these places have been able to follow the BBC's coverage of the changes.

We shall await tomorrow's results reports with interest - just where on BBC News Online will we be able to hunt down the results of the Cheshire West & Chester and Cheshire East polls?

Too much too zoo...

Another baby giraffe has been born at Chester Zoo. And BBC News Online has chosen to report the birth. That is the fifth zoo story we've had since the beginning of this year. While it's good to know that these rare Rothschilds are surviving in captivity, it's hardly the most important thing happening in our county.

We have local elections in less than a month and for Cheshire, this will also mean the abolition of a number of district councils, the loss of our county council and the forced imposition of two unitary authorities by the government that will split our historic county in two forever. The BBC has only once reported on this, some months back, despite it having been on the political agenda for well over a year. This massive change is going to affect almost 1 million people. If this was taking place in Liverpool or Manchester, it's fair to assume it would be receiving saturation coverage.

We get bloody giraffes again, instead!

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...

2008 - a poor start

Since we last blogged, the BBC has reported just 15 Cheshire news stories. Yes, that's 15 in 39 days. Not even 3 stories a week.

Yet things have not exactly been quiet across the county. For one thing, the massive row about the government's decision to split Cheshire into two unitary authorities has only just started to kick off, after simmering a few months. This deeply unpopular decision has been front page news on most local papers around the county. It's a massive change that will cost millions and affect almost a million people. But Aunty doesn't think it's worth reporting.

Looks like there's no policy change at BBC News Online for 2008, then. In other words, no news is, well, no news (for Cheshire, anyway)...