Here are some views of a part of Cumbria, which almost certainly never features on either BBC1 North West Tonight or on ITV1 Granada Reports. To be fair, North Cumbrian viewers seldom see this part of Cumbria featured on ITV1 News Border Lookaround or BBC Look North (NE/ Cumbria) either! It would seem that news- editors seldom come up into these northern hills- on the grounds that there is not much happening in the North Pennines (!)- even if the area in within the transmission area for the Regional Programming! Today, on Alston Moor in the North Pennines it was a cold bright day after sleet and snow-showers on high-ground cleared to give an overnight air-frost.
View from “The Rake” pass on the Cumbria- Northumberland border looking west towards the village of Nenthead. Note the remnants of overnight snow in the foreground. A cold bright late-October day with a Polar Maritime airstream. At the left in the background is Cross Fell, the highest mountain in the Pennines which rises to 893 metres above sea-level.The North Pennines in late afternoon of 21st October 2021: View south from near the small community of Blagill towards Skellgill- just east of the small town of Alston- Cumbria’s highest town. Dusk on 21st October 2021: View from near Blagill towards the small Cumbrian town of Alston and to Cross Fell in the background – the highest town and highest mountain in the North Pennines respectively.
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 18 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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One thought on “A Cold Bright Autumn Day in the North Cumbrian Pennines.”
Isle of Man same as you