BBC Local Radio

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I congratulate the hon. Member for Suffolk Coastal (Dr Coffey) on securing this debate. I know that she is a regular contributor to Radio Merseyside which, as my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) has said, is the most listened to local radio station outside London. I would like to pick up the point about tragedy. Unfortunately, tragedy has been an all-too-common occurrence in Liverpool in the recent past, and there is sometimes the need for a local voice or slant on something that has been misreported. For example, in 1989 the scurrilous newspaper, The Sun, defamed and disparaged Liverpool supporters, and the city needed someone to stand up for it. Radio City and Radio Merseyside both did that, and Radio Merseyside more than most. With its phone-in and its afternoon presenter, Roger Phillips, the station is not just a local voice but a friend who goes into people's homes, and who people know will not be judgmental. They were prepared to use the phone-in programme to express not only their anger, but their grief.