Ron Smith

On 4^th July Ron was one of a delegation of council representatives from both sides of the Scottish border who were joined by the Bishop of Carlisle for a meeting in London with ITV’s regional director Michael Jermey, director of public affairs Nigel Warner, regional director of Tyne Tees and Border Graeme Thompson, and executive director of ITV Border Paddy Merrall.

All parties agreed that the meeting was a constructive one and gave an opportunity to clarify the reasons for ITV’s proposed changes and their potential impact on the region. Tim Stoddard, Leader of Cumbria County Council, said:
“Lookaround is one of the most valued and well-loved of any of ITV’s regional news programmes. The depth of support for its local coverage is proved time and time again in both the audience viewing figures and our own surveys of local people. Losing Lookaround would have a major impact on the identity of the region. Today’s meeting has helped quantify some of the economic and social effects of the proposed ITV changes and has also been an extremely useful guide to the rationale behind the proposed regulatory changes. We have agreed to meet again with ITV so that we can prepare a fully-informed response once the next stage of Ofcom’s consultation begins in September.”

Ron felt this was a useful meeting. It gave an opportunity for these councils to come together making common cause to protect their own regional news programme. The plans envisage a 6 minute opt out at 6.05 pm from the Gateshead originated news programme. This opt out would cover the whole of South of Scotland, while Cumbria would have their own opt out at this point. The group were promised that any major story for the area – i.e. of wider regional interest - would be covered in the remaining 24 minutes of the programme. Similarly there would be a 9 minute news programme for each area at the close of the national 10.00 pm news. The success or failure of the proposal would be measured by local residents in Teviotdale or Liddesdale by the amount of news coverage of Newcastle or Middlesborough for example, which would be of little interest within the Borders.

While the greater scheme of amalgamation of Border and Tyne Tees seems to be established (led by cost savings), Ron, who was accompanied by Douglas Scott from SBC’s Chief Executive’s office, believes that the points for pushing are

• an increase in the opt out allocation from 6 to 15 minutes (as this will include both Borders and Dumfries & Galloway

• the retention of a news-gathering facility in the Borders are, responding to local events

• a commitment by the amalgamated company to producing feature programmes of Borders interest, such as in the Reivers series.

Further meetings will be taking place.