Letter: Get your hands off our Radio Shropshire

Letter: I read with real trepidation the report that was highlighted in both the Daily Telegraph and the Shropshire Star reporting the threat by the BBC to cut most of the output from the very good local radio stations and put it through some "super duper" Radio 5 Live.

In my experience of dealing with these sort of people there is no smoke without fire.

If the BBC are intent on this course of action it would have a huge effect on Shropshire.

Our audience listening figures are very good. Why is that? The reason is that Radio Shropshire offers a huge contribution to our way of life in this county, we are a county of very small communities many of them isolated and relying on our road network to thrive.

Radio Shropshire provides excellent information on road closures, accidents and school closures at times when weather conditions are often awful.

This information is not available on a national radio station in such detail and would lose its meaning for the people of Shropshire. We would venture out onto treacherous roads unsure of any detail.

Those of us who remember the local radio's contribution in 2001 from Ian Sawers and the NFU during the worst foot-and-mouth epidemic will cherish the support it gave us.

We need to rally the support of all our local MPs and councillors to stop this ridiculous idea in its infancy, otherwise we stand to lose what has become a close and valued friend to most of us Salopians.

Arthur Hill

Much Wenlock