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BBC Trust visits Wales

Mid-June saw the BBC Trust hold one of its regular monthly meetings in Wales. The Chairman, Vice-Chair and several Trustees came to Wales a day earlier and had an opportunity to meet BBC Wales staff and attend a question and answer session with them, to see some of the work undertaken by BBC staff here in Wales both for Network and national output, visit the Roath Lock drama production facility - in the last stage of construction - and meet members of Audience Council Wales.

BBC Chairman at ACW meeting

At the meeting between the Audience Council Wales, the BBC Chairman and BBC Trustees, Council members raised some of the key issues for Wales highlighted in the recently published Wales Annual Review document. These include the concerns of audience members regarding the limited reception of Radio Cymru and Radio Wales on DAB, the inadequate availability of Radio Wales on FM, audience concerns regarding future funding of English and Welsh language output on TV, and possible further cuts to BBC Wales services arising from the current Delivering Quality First project, coming as it does after five years of cost cutting. The Council highlighted the pivotal place of the BBC in Wales' civil society saying :

"The BBC in Wales plays a pivotal role in sustaining democracy and Civil Society in Wales. This is no small matter in a small nation, which, sadly, is lacking a newspaper press of any significance, where the majority of London newspapers read pay scant regard to Wales, where there is no well-developed journalism led commercial radio sector and where ITV's provision for Wales is not what it once was.

"The BBC therefore plays the key role in informing people about what goes on in their own nation and what has been decided on their behalf by their elected politicians in the National Assembly, which is an institution, now in its fourth term which is increasing in confidence and powers.

"It is no exaggeration to say that without the BBC there would not have been a platform for an informed debate ahead of last March's referendum and the majority of those who voted in the referendum were informed by what they had seen and heard on the BBC's coverage. That was true too of the campaigns leading up to polling day on 4th May."

Lord Patten visiting Roath Lock site

BBC Chairman, Lord Patten addressed this point in an interview published in the Western Mail, saying :

"It's perfectly true, if I may say so, that there are fewer people reading papers that are published in Wales and, because of the tough climate for advertising revenue, commercial broadcasters haven't been able to commit as much to Wales as in the past.

"So that puts a particular responsibility on the BBC to act as a guardian, as a custodian of the public space of citizens at a time when there is increased political vitality in Wales because of the establishment of the Welsh Parliament. This is a point which is well understood by the BBC Trust.

"It doesn't mean that the consequences of the Licence Fee settlement that we have to deal with will apply everywhere else but not in Wales. But I can assure you that we have a strong understanding of, first of all, the importance of the BBC in Welsh political and cultural life, and secondly an understanding as well of the importance of Wales as a creative hub for programmes that are made for the whole BBC network."

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