Union to challenge Pebble Mill cuts

BECTU plans to fight against job cuts in the BBC's Birmingham base at a meeting on August 29.

The meeting, due on September 1 with senior BBC managers, was set up after the shock announcement of studio closures at Pebble Mill. Members in Birmingham will meet soon after to discuss the proposals.

Both main studios are to shut, putting 90 technical, operational, and support staff at risk of redundancy. According to the BBC, the facilities have been under-used, and can no longer be justified economically.

BECTU has condemned the decision, and plans to mount a campaign against the closure, with the aid of local politicians. The BBC complex at Pebble Mill was designed around its studios, and the future of the entire site is now in doubt, according to union officials and staff working in the building.

Concern over Pebble Mill's future has been growing for some time, and management were last year forced to give assurances about future workload after pressure from BECTU and the NUJ.

The closure decision comes in the wake of Director-General Greg Dyke's shake-up of the entire Resources structure within the BBC, announced in early July.

Areas already hit by redundancy proposals include London Operations, which runs Studios, OBs, and Post-Production facilities at Television Centre, and Manchester, where a joint venture with Granada Media is likely to lead to job cuts among BBC staff.

The 90 redundancies at Pebble Mill will lift Dyke's tally of job cuts to nearly 1200 planned over the next two years.