[cma-l] News release from Sheffield Live! on Minister's letter

[Steve Buckley]

PRESS RELEASE: 17-09-09

Government pledges to find new funds for community radio

The Government is to seek additional funds to 
support community radio, according to Siôn Simon 
MP, Minister for Creative Industries. The 
Minister’s comments come in response to a joint 
letter to the Prime Minister signed by community 
broadcasters in Sheffield and across the country, 
calling for a sizeable increase in public funding for community radio.

In the Government reply to the joint open letter, 
Siôn Simon writes: “the Government recognises the 
importance of community radio and its 
contribution to the communities which they 
serve”. In addition to current Government 
support, he says: “DCMS will continue to work 
with other Government Departments and Agencies to 
identify other sources of funding, specifically 
where there are community cohesion and social 
gain objectives, for community radio.”

Steve Buckley, Director of community radio 
station, Sheffield Live!, said: "We welcome 
Government recognition that additional funding 
should be found for community radio but we need 
more than a vague expression of intent.  We are 
not asking for the sector to be fully, or even 
majority, publicly funded. All we want is for 
Government support to be reflected in a funding 
settlement that reflects the benefits community 
radio brings to the communities we serve. 
Government should implement now the recommendations of the Everitt Report.”

Professor Anthony Everitt, author of the 2003 
report, New Voices, whose recommendations formed 
the basis for government legislation, says the 
sector is “hobbled by its poverty”, and has 
called on government to implement the 
recommendations of his report to provide 
(matched) grant aid of £30,000 per year per 
station towards core operating costs. Everitt 
says “this is a modest expenditure when the 
benefits community radio can confer are taken into account”.

The community radio campaign has gained the 
support of members of Parliament from all 
political parties. Lord David Puttnam assured the 
community radio sector:  “...the weight of public 
support and technological history are with you.” 
A petition, at 
<http://allthevoices.org/>http://allthevoices.org, 
calling on the Government to support the 
sustainability and growth of community radio by 
substantially increasing the resources of the 
Community Radio Fund, has gathered nearly 3000 signatures.

-ends-

For further information contact:

Steve Buckley
Office:  0114 220 1426; Mobile:  07801 945037
sbuckley at gn.apc.org

Notes:

1. Copies of the letter from Siôn Simon MP, 
Minister for Creative Industries and the joint 
open letter to the Prime Minister, are online at 
<http://www.sheffieldlive.org/lettertogordonbrown>http://www.sheffieldlive.org/lettertogordonbrown
2. The petition to the Prime Minister is 
available at 
<http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/allthevoices/>http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/allthevoices/
3. The government has published (on 16 July 2009) 
a consultation paper on plans to ringfence 3.5% 
of the television licence fee to fund local and 
regional news and other essential public service 
content priorities. This consultation closes 22 September 2009.
4. The Communications Act 2003 provides, in 
Section 359, for a Community Radio Fund. In a 
regulatory impact assessment paper at the time 
the government estimated this would not cost more 
than £3-4 million per annum. It commenced in 
2005/06 at a level of £500,000 and has not been 
increased since. The number of community radio 
licences has grown from 14 to over 200.

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