BBC local staff vote in favour of strike over radio cuts

National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members working for the BBC’s regional services in England have voted in favour of strike action over plans to merge some local radio shows.

The broadcaster has announced that its 39 stations will share more shows in afternoons, evenings and at weekends.

The BBC said it would “modernise” local services by boosting online content.

The NUJ said 83% of those who took part in the ballot voted for strike action. No strike dates have been announced.

“The door remains open for the BBC to engage in constructive discussions,” the union said.

Last month, NUJ national broadcasting organiser Paul Siegert said there was “real anger” about the corporation’s plans.

He said they would “completely undermine the BBC’s public service remit and take the ‘local’ out of local radio”.

Under the proposals, the 39 stations in England would keep their own weekday morning programmes but then share 20 afternoon weekday shows, 10 shows after 18:00 and a single all-England programme after 22:00. Weekend output will also be affected.

The 39 BBC Introducing shows, which help to discover up-and-coming musicians, will also be cut to 20 programmes – but with extra timeslots to ensure a broad range of music can still be played.

The BBC has said local news bulletins and live sports programming will be maintained.

When the plans were announced in October, the corporation said about 48 jobs would be lost and £19m would be “reprioritised from broadcast services towards online and multimedia production”.

Jason Horton, director of production for BBC Local, said last month: “Our goal over the next 12 months is to modernise our BBC Local services in England to strengthen our online provision for communities across the country.”

Separately, NUJ members at BBC Northern Ireland recently voted in favour of potential strike action in a consultative ballot over planned cuts to jobs and programmes.