Helen stands up for local Shropshire news in Parliament

Helen Morgan said people in North Shropshire are “not interested” in news from Wolverhampton and Stoke as she spoke out for local news in the House of Commons.

The Liberal Democrat MP called for BBC local radio to be kept local and for the BBC to cancel its planned cuts to local output that would see content shared across stations for large parts of the afternoons, evenings and weekends.

Helen has previously written to BBC Director General Tim Davie urging him to cancel the cuts to local programming and on Thursday reiterated the point in the House of Commons.

In her speech to Parliament, Helen said, “People who live in a rural area like North Shropshire want to know what is happening in North Shropshire. As much as they bear no ill will to the people of Stoke or Wolverhampton, they are not that interested in what is going on there.

“The lifeblood of every fête, charitable event or local football match is that the organisers can get on local radio and tell people that those events are happening. The local connection is important, particularly for people who live in rural places and cannot access commercial stations, because they do not get a signal. BBC local radio is the lifeblood of those organisations and people.”

Under the proposals, local Radio Shropshire programming would only be broadcast between 6am and 2pm.

In her letter to Tim Davie, Helen said, “Local radio such as Radio Shropshire in my constituency provides a crucial service that commercial providers are unable to offer, covering important local issues and providing a voice for communities who otherwise would not be heard. It is a service that should be protected, not cut.

“Moreover, local radio is an indispensable source of information for all demographics at times of crisis. Here in Shropshire this is proven every year when thousands of families are affected by flooding and rely on their local BBC radio to be kept up to date.

“Cutting this would affect people of all backgrounds but I am particularly concerned for the many vulnerable and elderly people who rely on local news. Rural isolation is a major issue in North Shropshire and for those who suffer from it, radio is a rare close companion for which the internet is no replacement. Indeed patchy internet coverage and slow connection speeds further increase the importance of local radio.

“Moves towards shared regional content are bad news for the whole country but are particularly bad news for large, rural counties like Shropshire that have little in common with the distant areas they will be sharing content with. Reports from urban Coventry are irrelevant for families 70 miles away in rural North Shropshire.”