The former voice of BBC Radio Suffolk's afternoons has written to BBC Director General Tim Davie begging him to save local radio.

Lesley Dolphin penned the letter after hearing of plans to merge county-based stations into regional bodies with only 40 hours of local programming per week. 

It reads: "Local radio needs to be what it says – local, and if these changes are implemented the unique service that the BBC has offered the license fee payers for 50 years will become irrelevant.

"Until this summer I was a BBC staff member and have been very proud to work in local radio over the past 40 years. I have seen the difference we have made in Suffolk, Norfolk and Leeds.

"BBC managers are proud that they have journalists on the ground in every county but local radio is so much more than a news service – it is embedded in local communities and gives people a sense of place, a chance to celebrate heritage and art. It will be impossible to do that if programmes have to be shared across a wider area.

"For example, BBC Radio Suffolk helped lead a campaign to get a children’s hospice built.

"That won't be possible if they are broadcasting to several counties at once – why would people in Milton Keynes or Norwich care about a hospice in Suffolk?

"I believe it's totally wrong to throw away a well-loved service for the development of a digital offering that may attract younger people.

"This is an experiment which, in the meantime, is sacrificing half a century of local radio development along with its listeners and hundreds of loyal and hard-working staff.

"The plans target older people and those living in rural communities. Why is it that Radio Stations in places like Manchester and Merseyside will not be asked to share as many of their programmes?

"I would suggest that those living in isolated communities in Suffolk have more need for their local radio station and they pay their licence fee too.

"Listeners were hugely grateful for BBC Radio Suffolk's coverage during the pandemic because we were there with them at breakfast and at lunch and in the evening as we clapped for the carers.

"Local radio is part of the community, the staff live alongside the listeners, it has a unique role to play.

"Please reconsider these plans... and please listen to the audiences of our stations."