Sir Michael Lyons, the chairman of the BBC Trust, is to step down after four years in the post, he has announced.

Sir Michael - the first person to take the role of chairman - wrote to Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, to explain that he will not seek reappointment next May when his term ends.

He said the growing workload for the part-time position had made him "increasingly concerned" that it was squeezing out other demands on his time.

In his letter, he said the post "has been far more demanding than the nominal three to four days a week in the job specification".

There has been some uncertainty about the future of the Trust under the coalition Government.

Prior to the General Election, there had been speculation that the Conservatives would move to scrap the body and, as shadow culture spokesman, Mr Hunt had said he had "serious reservations" about the BBC Trust.

The Trust has been credited with helping to make some areas of the BBC's operation more transparent, such as expenses and senior executives' pay.

It has also been involved in a number of high-profile difficulties for the corporation.

Most recently, it launched a public consultation into director general Mark Thompson's strategic review.

As a result, the Trust effectively put the brakes on proposals to close the digital station 6 Music.

It was also closely involved with the aftermath of the "Sachsgate" furore, involving Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross.

In his letter, Sir Michael said he had reflected on whether to continue in his position over the summer.

He said the model established for the Trust was "robust, workable and effective".

"I am proud of what we have achieved in safeguarding the BBC's independence against significant challenge, and bringing the interests of audiences in all their diversity to the centre of the BBC's thinking," he said.

And Sir Michael said the Trust had "taken openness and transparency to a new level" and helped to ensure the BBC operated "within clear boundaries".


Source:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8001734/BBC-Trust-chairman-Sir...

But announcing his departure, he said: "For all the positives associated with this agenda, I have to acknowledge that the role of chairman has been far more demanding than the nominal three to four days a week in the job specification.

"It is, of course, a compelling aspect of working at the BBC that it can become an all-consuming part of one's life - and this applies equally to the staff across the BBC whose great commitment helps underpin its position as the world's leading public broadcaster.

"But this workload has now reached a point where I am increasingly concerned that it is crowding out other appointments to which I remain committed and other activity that I wish to undertake."

He said he had made his announcement now to leave time to find a successor, and to set a "clear context" ahead of forthcoming discussions on policy issues.

Sir Michael Lyons's days at BBC Trust were always numbered


BBC director general Mark Thompson needs friends now more than ever, so who will replace the trust's outgoing chairman?



Funny how the biggest surprise is that it finally came as a surprise to hear Sir Michael Lyons say that four years as chairman of the BBC Trust was enough for anyone. After all, his departure was predicted almost from the moment he arrived.

Apparently even Mark Thompson and Jeremy Hunt didn't know about the contents of the letter until this morning, although both of them must have been working on the assumption that Sir Michael would be spending more time in his Midlands home come May.

The BBC Trust, part regulator and part champion as the Tories like to call it, was given an almost fatal back slap at birth when the man who delivered it promptly departed for ITV. Michael Grade was at it again in Edinburgh when he described the BBC as "almost unmanageable now".

Funny again how no one even seemed to notice that the other Michael, the one who was supposed to be managing the scope of the BBC's ambitions, was not even at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh TV Festival this year. BBC chairmen may rarely venture north during the August bank holiday but, with hindsight, you should expect them to when the BBC director general is giving the speech of his career.

But since the heady days of May, when the only common media ground between the new coalition seemed to be that the BBC Trust and "former Labour councillor" chairman should go, Lyons has been a dead man walking.

Of course a man who lasted that long in local politics knows a thing or two about fighting back. So before the summer, he rubbished suggestions that the Trust should change its name to a "licence fee payers' trust" by saying that's what it was in all but name. He sought to prove he was the voters', er licence fee payers', friend by urging Mark Thompson to cut back and stop paying executives and talent too much money and there were reports of positive meetings with Hunt. In July Lyons said he was "up for the fight" in standing for a second term and last week suggested that the licence fee could forego its already agreed increase next year.

Apparently, a long summer holiday convinced the 60-year-old that the three-day-week BBC Trust job was taking over his life.

The big question now is what happens to the regulator he leaves behind. His resignation letter defends the make-up of the Trust as both independent supporter and regulator. "For all the continuing debate, I am clear that this model is robust, workable and effective," he writes. "We have taken openness and transparency to a new level." The problem is that not many people agree and certainly no one within government.

It is also safe to say that what Michael Lyons thinks will now be largely irrelevant to the governance of the BBC. For whatever reason, back-to-school September sickness or long-term planning, his announcement gives Hunt and the DCMS long enough to come up with a viable alternative.

The mutterings since May have again been based around the notion of a non-executive chairman and a separate regulator to replace the Trust. Why not let Ofcom (or that unlovely Gruffalo, Ofbeeb) do the regulatory bit in a nod to "proper corporate governance", so the argument goes. Doing this would of course carry on one of the very quangos that the new Tories have railed against for the past few years.

Yet leaving this vexed regulatory issue to one side – and frankly there's too much going on today – spare a thought for poor Mark Thompson. For the next six months, he is left with a sitting duck champion and a regulator on his way out. Having just taken on the might of the Murdoch empire, the man really does need a friend right now.

Why not bring in a big hitter to help him when he needs it? Well, such an argument would need legislation for one thing, although you can almost hear the DCMS champing at the bit on that one.

It would also need the right person to do the job, a big hitter who could effectively take Mark Thompson out of a job (he is the chair of the BBC's executive team) and do it in such a way that he, or indeed his successor was grateful. There are lots of names in the frame already but that probably rules out a few. Greg Dyke? No. Marcius Agius, the former banker who is already senior independent director at the BBC, is one, as is Nick Shott, another Tory-backed banker who is spearheading a review into local TV, or Roger Parry. Their perceived or actual friendship with the Tories should probably count against them. But a fresh name would be good, one which was truly independent and big enough to remain above politics. He'd never do it but Sir Howard Stringer must leave Sony sometime soon and his family lives near Thompson in Oxford. After a career in the US and Japan, he has few political links and fewer axes to grind. Or there's Gail Rebuck who, with a seat on the board of Sky and yet close connections to New Labour, would be controversial but fun.

The director general has lost his chairman and BBC1 controller on the same day, just when he needs all the allies he can get.

Organgrinder Blog-
Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/14/michael-lyons-bbc-trust