The last few days have seen an improvement in the amount of Regional News- coverage given to the northern half of North West England by BBC North West Tonight. Even the Keswick outlook forecast has come back into Owain Evans weather- forecast!
This evening, Roger Johnson had a piece on schools re-opening in Blackpool and a noteworthy piece about two people crossing Cumbria using small inflatable dingies called packrafts. All of the places they traversed were covered, right up to the Solway Firth- which is near the northern edge of the English North West: One could assert that the entire North West of England was covered effectively- as indeed at the other end of North West England there was also a news- feature of the Arley Hall botanical gardens near Northwich in Cheshire (and North West England does not extend further south than Cheshire).
Yesterday, the more Cumbria-sympathetic Steven Saul included a piece on a young man called Alex Staniforth climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike in the Lake District and Snowdonia in North Wales- and running all the distance between these mountains (the highest in Scotland, England and Wales respectively). He completed this great athletic feat in nine days, 12 hours and 51 minutes and raised money for a Mental Health charity in the process. Steven Saul included this little piece on Alex Staniforth in Cumbria (including at the Scottish Border) in a short Bank-Holiday bulletin of just six minutes’ duration.
Recent days have also seen coverage of tourists littering in the Lake District, the Lake District’s three famous spaniels and there was even a link on the BBC North West Twitter feed of the Missing Lancashire Cat that ended up at Falcon Vets in Carlisle (though this item did not actually make the news). What is remarkable is that much of this coverage happened over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
However, Cumbrian and North Lancastrian viewers of BBC North West Tonight have had such “false dawns” before: Let’s see if it is sustained and that more Cumbrian and North Lancastrian news finds its way into the BBC Regional News bulletins for North West England on a regular basis.
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Published by northwestisnorthwest
My name is Ian Pennell and I am a freelance Book-keeper. I live near Alston in the North Pennines in north-east Cumbria. I used to live and work in Lancaster until 19 years ago and have friends in northern North West England. I have two Websites devoted to campaigning for local, relevant Regional TV, one for Cumbria/ North Lancashire the other for Northumberland/Scottish-Border.............................................................................................................................. A big problem is that the Regional Television Bulletins for the North West covers the southern third of the Region about 90% (plus a part of Derbyshire which is NOT the North West of England), covers the middle third of North West England poorly and covers the northern third of North West England not at all! When I was studying at Lancaster University, I used to watch BBC1 North West Tonight because it covered areas up around where I was brought up- in northern Cumbria as well as more immediately locally around Lancaster. Then I came home one day, turned on BBC1 North West Tonight wondering why they were silent on Cumbria and discovered why: Most of Cumbria had been chopped off the weather-map! ........................................................................
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In rural and northern Northumberland too, Regional TV, as is received by viewers, tends too often to be Tyneside/ Wearside/ Teesside- focussed with little news locally. Communities in North Northumberland have strong links across the Border into south-east Scotland and towards Edinburgh but none of the Regional TV News- services serving Northumberland today ever goes across the Scottish Border to cover significant happenings of interest to North Northumbrians. The region of Northumberland/ Scottish Borders/ East and Mid Lothian area is vast- but it is largely overlooked by mainstream Regional TV! .................................................................................................................... ................
In two websites, one for northern North West England and the Isle of Man (a country in it's own right that does not have it's own TV service!), and another Website focussing on Northumberland, North Yorkshire and the North Pennines I make the point that Regional TV that informs viewers of important things in their local area is a Public Service that must be funded better, in order that rural areas of northernmost England get good geographic- appropriate local news-coverage.
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