Look North is expected to be affected for the foreseeable future as BBC journalists protest £19m of "draconian cuts" planned for local radio stations.
The corporation says they are not imposing cuts as local budgets remain the same, although £19m of cash from broadcast services is being diverted towards online and multimedia production. Nevertheless, members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in BBC newsrooms around England have exacted a period of work-to-rule in protest at the move.
This affects Look North as news presenters often "act-up", where they fulfil a role above their pay grade and are paid accordingly to do so. However, during the period of industrial action, which started today (Friday) and follows a 24-hour strike on Wednesday March 15 where Look North was replaced with a repeat of Garden Rescue, presenters will not "act up", meaning that twice a week bosses must find an alternative solution.
Read more: Radio legend Alan Robson to host 'audience with' night at Newcastle's Hard Rock Cafe
Bridgid Nzekwu, a freelance presenter based in London, will present tonight's flagship North East news programme. Nzekwu replaces Alison Freeman, who issued a statement on Twitter on Friday morning explaining her absence from the show.
Alison's statement read: "I won’t be presenting BBC Look North this eve. Along with colleagues across the country we’re refusing to act-up in senior roles due to the way cuts are being made to local BBC services.
"I’ll still report/present other progs. A freelancer will present the 1830 instead. Our sports presenters will continue with their usual role of presenting sport but will also not be acting up."
And it is not only Look North that has been affected. On Thursday and Friday mornings this week, the regional bulletins into BBC Breakfast came from Leeds because of the work to rule.
The BBC's plans would see local radio stations across England share more programmes within wider regions, with local content only being played on BBC Radio Newcastle, for instance, between 6am and 2pm on weekdays. This would essentially cut 50% of programmes and could involve a net loss of 48 roles, with about 139 jobs cut in local radio and 131 created in online local news.
Of 1,000 NUJ members of BBC Local, 83% voted in favour of strike action and 92% backed action in short of a strike, with a 69% turnout. Andrew Hartley, NUJ rep for BBC Newcastle, TV and online, described the cuts as 'Draconian' and hopes that the action will bring managers back to the negotiation table.
He told ChronicleLive: "Local radio performs a vital function to inform and entertain local communities about issues in their areas and BBC Management's plans will see this service massively cut. It's a sorry story of the hollowing out of local radio news, it breaks my heart - I've been doing local and regional news since the mid 80s and it's sad to see this happening.
"Most journalists in BBC local radio are currently still under threat of redundancy. We’re fighting cuts to BBC local radio which provides a vital service to tens of thousands of people across the area every day and we believe that by taking this industrial action, we can make BBC managers see sense and reverse these terrible cuts."
A BBC spokesperson said: "We’re sorry that audiences in the North East are experiencing some changes to Look North as a result of industrial action by the National Union of Journalists, but we are trying to minimise disruption as much as possible.
"We have a plan to modernise local services across England - including more news journalists and a stronger local online service – which will see no overall reduction in staffing levels or local funding. Our goal is a local service across TV, radio and online that delivers even greater value to communities."
"We are not making ‘cuts’, our overall budget for local services remains the same. We are reprioritising £19m of that from broadcast services towards online and multimedia production, to keep pace with changing audience expectations. There will still be dedicated local programming from all of our radio stations between 6am and 2pm on weekdays when audiences are at their largest.
"In the afternoon, some stations will share programming with neighbouring stations with more production effort involved. News bulletins and sport will remain local to each station so audiences will be informed in the same way."
Read next
