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Anglia TV cuts jobs and Peterborough office
ABOUT 34 jobs are to be cut at Anglia Tonight and the company's office in Peterborough is to close, as part of plans to merge its east and west programmes into one regional show.
ABOUT 34 jobs are to be cut at Anglia Tonight and the company's office in Peterborough is to close, as part of plans to merge its east and west programmes into one regional show.A spokesman for the ITV show, which has it main office in Norwich, confirmed today that its Peterborough office in Bretton Centre will close.
The move is part of major job losses announced by ITV yesterday, and a spokesman said staff at the news channel would be given the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy, but he did not rule out compulsory job losses.
A letter sent to journalists, technical staff and other employees in England and Wales yesterday explained that the current staffing levels of 1,075 would be cut by 429 to 646, although the exact number of journalists who face redundancy is not yet finalised. Unions have criticised the plans even though the company has stressed the quality of local news will not be damaged.
The move is part of plans by ITV News to cut costs as advertising revenue slows.
A spokesman for ITV said the combined regional evening and late news would cover both east and west by some 70 staff who would be retained.
He added that ITV was investing in digitising local services and providing ITV Local internet service.
The National Union of Journalists has criticised the proposals and vowed to fight the job cuts.
NUJ's assistant broadcasting officer, Laura Davison, did not rule out industrial action by its members.
She said: "We do not accept the level of cuts ITV News wants to make and it is difficult to see how we can avoid a fight over this."
Anglia Tonight has offices in Norwich, Ipswich, Luton, Chelmsford, Cambridge, Peterborough and Northampton.
Anglia wants to cut the number of main regional news programmes in England and the Scottish borders from 17 to nine, in a bid to save 40 million a year.
At the moment, the western and eastern parts of the ITV Anglia region receive separate news programmes.
Under the proposals, these would be scrapped in favour of a bulletin covering the region, with localised coverage provided by recorded segments.
ITV's chief operating officer, John Cresswell, said: "We are committed to a self-help, self-funding, solution to securing ITV's future."
He added: "In order to sustain our investment in UK content, we have to keep on top of our cost base."
More on this story elsewhere:
Anglia Tonight announces job cuts - .bbc.co.uk.
ITV axes 1,000 jobs - guardian.co.uk/media.
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