BBC Look North (North East/ Cumbria) had two pieces of news about South Cumbria over the last two days. Firstly, there is the concern over rising levels of Coronavirus in Barrow in Furness, and this has led to the borough being put under tighter restrictions (Level 2, of the new 3- Tier System of Coronavirus measures rolled out across England). Also, there was a piece on plans for the Lake District National Park to be expanded to cover parts of South Cumbria it does not currently include.
All well and good for viewers in the north of Cumbria who get BBC Look North: Unfortunately, for viewers in the South of Cumbria who get BBC North West Tonight and ITV Granada, no coverage of Cumbria was forthcoming. ITV Granada has not covered Cumbria for weeks whilst BBC North West has not covered the county for some days (though they do cover one or two Cumbrian news-items on some days).
This is, a main theme which I come back to on this site, completely unacceptable that viewers in more northerly parts of North West England so often don’t get to see news that is local to them- when that “Northern North West” News is shown instead to an audience that is 90% in North East England or North Yorkshire- and likely 100 or more miles from where the news is happening. If there are rising Coronavirus cases in Barrow-in-Furness folk living in South Cumbria (or even North Lancashire) need to know about it much more than people living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne or Sunderland. The Lake District, especially the South Lakes, is visited by many more folk from North West England by reason of geographical proximity so a news- item about the South Lakes being extended to the coast will be relevant to South Cumbria and Lancashire, not so much Tyneside and Teesside.
Viewers of Regional television in North West England should get the North West England news- from across the Region that stretches right up to the Scottish Border. If BBC Look North (North East/ Cumbria) deem a news-item in South Cumbria to be sufficiently important -to air for the benefit of viewers in northern Cumbria then perhaps that South Cumbrian news-item is of sufficient significance for viewers of BBC North West Tonight -who actually live in South Cumbria- to see!
ITV Granada have (apparently) totally neglected their most northerly viewers of ITV Granada Reports, but BBC North West’s Tonight’s coverage of Cumbria is still well short of what is effective local coverage for their most northerly viewers. They both need to be informed of the need for more resources to be put into news- coverage for their respective northern hinterlands. Do e-mail them to let them know:
BBC North West Tonight: Email nwt@bbc.co.uk or northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
ITV Granada Reports: Email granada.reports@itv.com
The more viewers write in and complain things are unacceptable, the more the North West’s Regional Television Broadcasters will be made aware things are unacceptable and that something needs to be done.