ITV news service under threat

ITV has been accused of ignoring the views of Plymouth people after chairman Michael Grade said the channel could be forced to give up public service broadcasting because it costs too much.

Ninety jobs at the ITV studios in Plympton are at risk as the independent broadcaster seeks to cut £40 million off its budget for news gathering.

"ITV Westcountry's news is an essential part of TV in the South West," Luke Pollard, the Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for South West Devon, said yesterday.

"It is disappointing that instead of looking at investing in these flagship programmes Mr Grade further alludes to closing local TV studios like ITV Westcountry in Plympton.

"His comments on the BBC again signal his intention to ignore local people's views and radically scale back local TV News.

"At a time when profits are falling it seems curious to scale back some of their most popular news programmes.

"Public service broadcasting should not be an optional extra for ITV, especially when it means coverage for Devon and Cornwall made in Bristol and the loss of 90 jobs in Plympton.

"ITV should come clean with their proposals for regional TV rather than leaving a question mark hanging over ITV in Plympton in order to give those who support Westcountry TV ability to scrutinise their thinking and make the case for why local TV is best delivered locally."

Mr Grade hit out at "a whole host of nanny state regulation" which would be swept away if ITV renounced its status as a public service broadcaster (PSB).

"I think we have a future as a public service broadcaster provided that we can get Ofcom and the Government to realise very, very quickly that we cannot afford to pay more than the licence and the PSB status is worth," he said.

"Ofcom estimates that to be around £45 million a year. It's presently costing us over £220 million a year."

He added: "It's not a threat, it's a realistic scenario, which Ofcom itself has proposed."