BBC Network news - no longer relevant for the nations?

Your local station is Surrey isn't it? The thing is how do you define local? Living in Surrey and having a local radio station from Brighton isnt really that far, the editorial area of Sussex and Surrey is still smaller than that of some single BBC Local stations such as Cumbria, Lincolnshire and Shropshire.

East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire has always been someone of a misnomer to me. I understand the transmitter range has a lot to do with it but in terms of affinity and identity there's nothing much. The peoples of Hull, Driffield etc have far more in common with the peoples of Sheffield while the peoples of Lincoln, Boston etc are more closely linked to North Norfolk.

I'd debate it's far enough if you live in NE Hants or West Surrey where Brighton and Hastings are a fair distance away, yet are in the same editorial area of a radio station that serves Aldershot and Fleet for 20 hours a day with very little affinity.

The difference is that those are largely rural counties with populations well under a million. Sussex and Surrey, plus the Hart and Rushmoor districts of North East Hampshire, comes to 3 million. It's comparable both in area and population to that covered by South East Today - and that's regarded as a regional, not a local, programme. So I think Sussex, Surrey and NE Hampshire counts as regional, not local.

What I define as genuinely 'local', though, is probably just my town. But the chances of getting a BBC radio station for every town is sadly extremely slim!

A lot of localness depends on what the content of the station is not where it broadcasts from. If theers an item about Guildford or Aldershot then does it matter if the voice presenting it is in Brighton or Woking then it's still local.

As you say local can mean your town or your county, the latter is pretty arbitrary

The original topic of this thread was about improved services for the Nations. Staff in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be addressed today about the future. I doubt expansion is going to be on the agenda.

Update: 60 jobs going in Scotland. Up to 40 in N. Ireland. 60 in Wales.