Bruce Fights BBC Aberdeen Cuts

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 8th Apr 2005

Gordon Liberal Democrat MP, Malcolm Bruce, has written to Controller of BBC Scotland to voice his opposition to proposals to restructure and effectively downgrade BBC activities in Aberdeen.

The BBC is carrying out a radical review of staffing with substantial job reductions being proposed, and BBC Scotland will be making its contribution. Mr Bruce has voiced strong opposition to any cuts being made in the peripheries, such as Aberdeen, which has suffered more than enough cuts over the years.

Malcolm Bruce commented:

"Our main public service broadcaster has a particular responsibility to provide its service to the further reaches of the UK and the Aberdeen base is crucial to this role in the North of Scotland. I have long been of the view that BBC Scotland is too 'Glasgowcentric' and these latest proposals will make it even more so.

"During the years I have been involved with broadcasting in Aberdeen the ability to produce and broadcast local programmes has steadily declined in both the commercial and public broadcasting centres. The days when a main radio evening news programme would be broadcast from Aberdeen have long gone. Even local bulletins were only retained after a strong local campaign. The Beechgrove Garden is a distant memory.

"BBC Aberdeen is needed to service its own community and to feed news from this community into the network. Its ability to do this will be severely curtailed if there is no local manager and reduced staffing. I have recently experienced an inability to feed into the network when asked to do so by BBC in London. In future I expect Aberdeen based people will be less likely to be asked to contribute if the staffing levels and technical support are too thinly spread.

"I have therefore written to BBC Scotland to urge them to retain local management and current staffing levels. Aberdeen is not where the staffing overload is occurring. I hope that they will look elsewhere."