BBC Director General stands over cuts to Radio Foyle

The BBC’s Director General Tim Davie has stood over plans to impose cuts to Radio Foyle in Derry while also suggesting that resources need to be moved outside capital cities such as Belfast.

Under current proposals 28 (5%) jobs could be lost from a workforce of around 600 in Belfast and eight (27%) at Foyle.

Politicians and past managers at the north-west station have been clear this would “decimate” a workforce of around 30.

The planned axing of the Breakfast Show and hourly news bulletins on Radio Foyle was raised as a “special issue” at a meeting of the Public Affairs Committee at Westminster today, Thursday, January 12.

Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clinton Brown suggested cuts to Radio Foyle would be “disproportionate”.

Mr Davie was asked why he hasn’t engaged with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Derry City and Strabane District Council Mayor Sandra Duffy who had invited him to the city to discuss the proposed cuts.

In response, Mr Davie said the BBC has only just received some of the letters and “engagement is critical”.

He added: “We have to make choices of where the audience impact is versus where our money is and where the future is going.

“With regards to Foyle, this is a painful saving but we believe we should be investing more in digital and be doing more across the whole of Northern Ireland in terms of developing the production sector and other things.

“So, we think there are better ways of using the money.”

He accepted the point that there are “differences in the community there who need to be served” and said there will be three hours of coverage including a half hour news programme from Foyle for an area of 137,000 people.

Pressed again on the proportionality of the cuts, Mr Davie stressed there is “very good senior management in Northern Ireland who care deeply about these issues” and they’re looking at “where their money can be most effectively spent”.

He continued: “I note your point about the balance of resources in Belfast and there. I think over time the team would like to see and look at how we could get more Northern Ireland resources spread across the area, which is something you know that I done at the BBC more generally.

“We should not be based solely in capitals so I think there is some opportunity there.”

The committee chair said BBC Radio Foyle is a “really big issue” in Derry and asked if Mr Davie would be willing to meet with SDLP Foyle MP Colum Eastwood and DUP East Derry MP Gregory Campbell.

Mr Davie said he wanted to talk to senior colleagues before confirming. “But we want to engage, whether it’s me or a senior colleague, I will come back and confirm that in the next day or two.”

SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood believes the planned cuts at Radio Foyle are in “no way proportional and would effectively mark the end for a station” that means so much to people in the area.

“Cutting most of Radio Foyle’s programming and letting go of many of its talented and hardworking staff in an attempt to make a meagre saving for a corporation the size of the BBC is entirely nonsensical, especially when compared with the impact these cuts will have on Belfast,” he added.

“The BBC Director General Tim Davie needs to meet with us to understand the strength of feeling and attachment to Radio Foyle that exists in our city.

“I feel it would be even more useful if he’d agree to visit Derry so that he can hear from people first-hand exactly what this station means to us and the impact these cuts will have on a community that is determined to fight to prevent them.”

During the meeting, in answer to a question about Radio Sheffield, Mr Davie again addressed the need for proportionate cuts.

“One of the things I think we all want to ensure is that we’re not disproportionately impacting certain communities, certain areas as we go through the changes,” he said.

“So, I agree with you and we need to keep clear on that.

“The thing I will say, I want to keep coming back to this, no-one supports our local radio stations like I do in terms of editorial value and what they are.

“But currently radio Sheffield reaches 158,000 people, 12% of the population, and this is not because they don’t do a fantastic job, this is the structural decline of linear radio – they’re down 23% in five years.”

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