Star comment: The BBC is ignoring local needs

It serves Shropshire, and is in touch with the people it serves. The presenters live among the community and do not, so far as we know, enjoy the lifestyles of the fabulously wealthy all paid for by the viewing and listening public.

At the other end of the spectrum you have that other BBC, the national BBC which is not a grass roots service, but luxuriates in big complexes in London and Manchester, where the so-called top presenters are wallowing in money and star turns like the football pundit Alan Hansen get paid handsomely for their experience and expertise when there are a host of others with arguably equal knowledge and experience who would be prepared to do exactly the same for peanuts just as a way of raising their profiles.

While the Beeb has been praised for its Olympics coverage, its default position on sporting events is to send an army of staff when other stations send a platoon.

It is against this background that we can judge the latest changes at Radio Shropshire which will water down the station as a locally-produced service by taking away a number of bespoke Shropshire shows, elbowing them out of the door and instead having a new nationwide local radio show – a contradiction in terms if ever there was one – stepping in.

Several jobs have already been lost by BBC Radio Shropshire as well.

The BBC needs to cut its cloth in these straitened times just like everybody else and if there is any consolation in these local changes it is that they could have been worse.

But cutbacks also mean identifying priorities, which in turn means making a judgment about what is good and worthwhile.

BBC Radio Shropshire is a great station and if it is a choice between funding it properly and paying the fat wages of a “star”, it should be an easy decision to make.