The BBC Trust has made the right decision to reverse local radio cuts

Today's announcement by the BBC Trust to reverse around half of the planned £15m cut to the budgets of BBC local radio stations, regional news and 5 live is good news for BBC local radio. 

I'm pleased that Lord Patten has listened to the public consultation and to those of us who have argued in parliament against the cuts. He is right to recognise that BBC local radio is so highly regarded because listeners value the localness of the content. People in Sheffield, including myself, enjoy listening to radio content about Sheffield, made and delivered with local accents, knowledge and experience.  

Sheffield has a strong city identity, and whilst we're also proud of being part of Yorkshire there is a big difference between our city identity and a regional Yorkshire identity. The original proposals for shared regional content with BBC Leeds and York would have provided less local news and views. This would have lowered audiences and created a spiral of decline for local radio. So the Trust is right to scale back the increase in shared regional programming, the job cuts in local newsrooms, and to give local radio stations the freedom to continue to provide specialist local services. 

Of course cuts still have to be made, but in particular I hope that this will mean BBC Radio Sheffield can continue to provide away football match commentary for our teams, and ensure that language programmes for ethnic minority communities can continue to be broadcast.

In December I was presented with a petition signed by over 5000 people who opposed the cuts to Radio Sheffield. I sent this in to the BBC consultation and I'm pleased that the Trust have listened to our call to rethink the cuts.