SAVAGE cuts to the funding of BBC local radio in the region provoked fury at Westminster yesterday.

North-East MPs lined up to attack a looming 20 per cent budget cut at BBC Tees, warning that the quality of programmes would inevitably suffer – and demanding the BBC tackle “ludicrous salaries”

elsewhere.

They also highlighted what they claimed was a North-South divide in the cuts, with parts of the North suffering the most while other areas escaped.

The controversy follows the announcement of a big shake-up in local news and current affairs coverage, among cuts worth £670m nationally.

In the North-East, 27 jobs are expected to be lost at radio stations BBC Tees and BBC Newcastle, while another four positions will be cut in current affairs.

On weekday afternoons, most stations will share programming with neighbouring stations, so that BBC Tees and BBC Newcastle will join together – as will BBC York with Radio Sheffield and Radio Leeds.

In a Commons debate, Helen Goodman (Lab; Bishop Auckland) claimed there was a “regional bias in the cuts”, adding: “Merseyside and Tees will be cut by 20 per cent, while Somerset will be cut by two per cent.

“It is not clear why. That also means that people will continue to feel that the BBC has a metropolitan bias.”

Tom Blenkinsop (Lab; Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) agreed, saying: “It is more than apparent to local people and BBC Tees that funds are being redirected to the South from the North-East, unfairly disadvantaging our local area.”

James Wharton (Con; Stockton South) also spoke up for BBC Tees, saying: “We have to protect such content, because it tells people what is going on in the communities they identify with, rather than in larger regional or national areas.”

And Ian Swales (Lib Dem; Redcar) said: “The BBC needs to explain why other radio stations are getting much smaller cuts. For example, in Berkshire it is seven per cent and, in Somerset, two per cent.

“We all pay our licence fee and deserve a level of service that does not depend on geography. We have heard about ludicrous salaries. If a BBC manager requires £500,000 to do a management job, we have the wrong person.”

In reply, Broadcasting Minister Ed Vaizey insisted he could not intervene in the cuts, which were the responsibility of BBC management.

But he defended the Government’s decision to freeze the licence fee for the next six years, at £145.50, saying: “Not a single other media group in the country has certainty of funding until 2017. That certainty is an enormous luxury. It is certainly not my job to tell the BBC what to do. It would be wrong for a minister to order the BBC to close down a particular service, or to save another.”