BBC Network news - no longer relevant for the nations?

Also the London TV region isn't just London, it's places such as High Wycombe, Guildford, Reigate, Dartford, Hertford, Hemel Hempstead, Maidenhead, Henley on Thames, Bishop Stortford, East Grinstead, Bracknell, Crawley, and loads of other places. Combined population of those towns and areas is bigger than some other English TV regions, (and Wales or NI).

Both BBC and ITV have always failed to properly serve these areas within the London TV region.

As we move towards on line delivery, that can be sorted of course by extending the appropriate bordering regions to serve those areas. The BBC have moved that way a bit as far as Sky/Freesat/Virgin postcode mapping is concerned. For instance Guildford is in the BBC South region for satellite/cable.

That's a welcome move. I think a logical split would be:

City
Inner London
Outer London
South
South East

That simply wouldn't work, thanks to the coverage of the Crystal Palace transmitter which from north to south covers as far as Luton and Crawley and from West to East from Reading to Southend.

Ideally CP could be used for a directional low powered BBC1 only mux (same as ITV West Country East at Ridge Hill) that would ensure BBC One South East can be received on Freeview in Dartford, Swanley and Sevenoaks to ensure they receive the correct news.

Ironically, there are viewers in parts of SE London within the GLA boundary who can receive BBC One SE and ITV Meridian from Bluebell Hill.

I see. As you can probably tell i'm no expert on transmitter ranges. How little power would be needed for CP to get the right news?

As pointed out, not technically possible with terrestrial.

Also, an 'Outer London' region, would be a bit weird. Places such as Weybridge and Romford have no affinity with each other

Better I think to attach 'quadrants' to existing regions.

For instance the quadrant bounded by the M23 and M4 attached to the South. M4 to M1, possibly 'Oxford', M1 to the Thames Estuary to the East.. and so on... The London Region then could just be the area bounded by the old GLC area.

Power isn't so much of a problem, it's the frequency assignments that are difficult. Of course ditch the London Live mux, and you have some spare spectrum for more beneficial use available. The local muxes are a criminal abuse of spectrum.

Have I had my Lilt spiked or has someone really just seriously suggested a dedicated BBC region for the 2.90km² City of London?

I’ll rephrase that. A city and inner London area

Which has a population of less than 10,000...!

Still more than The Vatican 😎

And just for the heck of it:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Media

Although Vatican Media isn't really what I would call "local news" - it's more like the promotional arm of the Vatican.