Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> "Save TV Centre" http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1364580421 Message started by Administrator on Mar 29^th, 2013, 6:08pm

Title: "Save TV Centre"
Post by Administrator on Mar 29^th, 2013, 6:08pm

Elsewhere there are now moves afoot to call for a last-minute reprieve for the Iconic Building that is (WAS?) "The BBC Television Centre".

Roger Bunce has written the following letters.

This went to "The Editor" at The Media Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail.

"As a former Cameraman, who worked there for over 45 years, I’m am deeply saddened by the closure of BBC Television Centre.

But, as a BBC License Fee Payer, I am furious.

There is no rational reason for the closure, yet the senior bureaucrats of BBC Management have squandered astronomical amounts of public money to achieve it. The creation of an ill-designed, substitute studio centre at Salford has cost about £800 million; plus the cost of staff relocation and redundancies; plus the continuing cost of hiring space in studios the BBC doesn’t own. A reported £1 billion has been spent on moving the news operation from a virtually brand-new newsroom at TV Centre, to a much larger, but less photogenic newsroom at Broadcasting House. And there is the further cost of adapting studios at Elstree as a temporary home for BBC productions, until they move back again, in 2015. Against all this, the BBC has sold Television Centre for the giveaway sum of £200 million.

On Friday’s “The One Show”, Michael Grade estimated the cost of modernising Television Centre at £200 million, a tiny fraction of the sum spent on moving out!

It may be too late to stop this act of architectural and cultural vandalism, but surely we License Fee Payers, who own the BBC but were never consulted, should be demanding an inquiry into this pointless squandering of our money."

The following was sent to The Radio Times and BBC Radio Four "Feedback" programme.

"Why exactly was Michael Grade chosen to host the “Goodbye to Television Centre” programme, and as a guest on the preceding “One Show” (Friday 22nd March, BBC 1 and BBC 4). He is no longer a BBC man, yet he seemed to be the only person arguing in favour of closing BBC Television Centre. Could this be because, as the overlord of Pinewood Studios, he stands to gain financially from the closure of a rival studio centre in the London area? This conflict of interest was never declared.
On the “One Show” he stated that Television Centre was not equipped for high-definition. This is completely untrue, but the presenters did not challenge him. He guessed that modernising the building would cost £200 million pounds. Even if this figure is accurate, it would be considerably cheaper than the cost of moving out, which has included some £800 million spent at Salford and a reported £1 billion on the new newsroom at Broadcasting House.

The Celebrities may all be expressing sadness at the unnecessary closure of a architecturally and historically important building, but it is we License Fee Payers who should be the most incensed at this pointless squandering of our money. We are supposed to own the BBC, but we were never consulted."

Title: Re: "Save TV Centre"
Post by Administrator on Mar 30^th, 2013, 2:11pm

If you have felt like contacting your MP or a newspaper regarding this topic, please add your comments below.

Title: Re: "Save TV Centre"
Post by TonyS on Apr 13^th, 2013, 10:45pm

Recently Save TV Centre Studios has been formed, and is campaigning to keep all eight BBC Television Centre production studios, TC1 to TC8, open. See the campaign site for more info http://tc1-8.org.uk/