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Government efforts to build civic or village pride look feeble beside the record of BBC local radio stations

Here's a rum thing. The Government's new 'community organiser' scheme has just announced its first 47 recruits in a £15 million programme; yet at the same time, the biggest community organisation in the country is facing walloping cuts.

Good luck to the pioneers organised by Locality, the latest in a line of arms length attempts to galvanise social action, but they will be hard put to it to match BBC local radio. It is ironic that promotion of the community organisers kicks off by saying that they are starting work 'from Cockermouth in Cumbria to Penzance in Cornwall.' Cockermouth in recent years has seen some of local radio's finest hours.

Yet BBC Radio Cumbria, whose support, information and morale-boosting has won consistent praise and many awards, is facing 20 percent cuts as part of the Corporation's overall commitment to reduce its budget by £670 million a year. This translates into a loss of nine full-time jobs - which the National Union of Journalists fears could actually mean a dozen people leaving - and the replacement of 50 hours of local programming a week with material shared more widely.

This is an organisation whose citation after winning the Sony Gold award for Community Radio Station of the Year in 2002 described staff's work as:

Completely at one with their community. Talent and professionalism married to commitment and concern resulting in a service to their community beyond the call of duty at a time when it was most needed.

That was after the foot and mouth disaster. Cumbria has not been left alone by challenge and tragedy since then; and on each occasion BBC Radio Cumbria has done a similar admirable job.

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, is one of Radio Cumbria's 150,000 weekly listeners (compared with 88,000 in the county for Radio 4 which is not being cut at all). He has asked Lord Patten, chair of the BBC Trust to come to Cumbria and feel the strength of local opinion. He says:

I want him to come face to face to local listeners and answer their questions. Radio Cumbria's ability to respond to events that have affected our county in recent years, like the floods, foot and mouth, the Grayrigg train accident and the West Cumbrian shootings would have been severely affected had these proposals been in place. I want the BBC to think again, but as a minimum rather than just sending emails to their staff they should come and see them face to face. It is the least these hard working people deserve.

BBC Radio Leeds is an integral part of the shrinking media network in Leeds and West Yorkshire. It is a vital facility for the community providing an essential service which relays local information and opens up discussion and debate in a way that is instant, interactive, easily accessible and most importantly free. Covering everything from health and welfare issues to arts coverage, its varied programming makes available a wide range of information allowing people to access all aspects of local news and events in their neighbourhood. We strongly believe that local radio stations play a fundamental part in empowering people by making audiences feel informed and part of a wider community of radio listeners.

And here is an appeal from the staff of Radio Merseyside: