Jeremy Hunt has now announced plans to give out licences for local television stations. Ofcom has identified 65 towns and cities where local terrestrial TV is technically possible and these places will be invited to bid for licences.
The BBC is currently considering axing three of its regional news services. The local “opt-outs” for Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Jersey (plus surrounding areas) may be closed as part of the BBC’s money-saving drive, misleadingly branded “Delivering Quality First”. This blog post was written to answer some of the more common questions about the proposals.
It was standing room only at Oxford Town Hall last week as around 300 people came to show their opposition to library cuts and talk about how we can fight the closures.
Stephanie Kitchen gave examples of people who have found life-enhancing support from libraries, including one woman who described the library as a “lifeline in my search for a job”.
Philip Pullman will be speaking at the Save Our Libraries event in Oxford Town Hall tomorrow. We’ll also be hearing from Steve Squibbs (library worker and Unison rep) and Stephanie Kitchen (local library user and campaigner). The meeting has been organised by Oxford Save Our Services and is open to everyone.
I really should have mentioned this a month ago, but my slight shock at events overcame my instinct to report them.
At our October AGM, I had the honour of being elected chair of the Oxford & District NUJ Branch. I’ll be following in the experienced footsteps of Peter Cann, who I’m glad to say will be staying on the branch committee as vice-chair. (In other words, we’ve effectively swapped roles.)
Oxford artists are creating window displays with a difference this winter. WinterLight Windows is a series of installations created by artist-led community groups to brighten up Oxfordshire windows this winter.
The Oxford & District branch of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) will be holding its November meeting at an earlier time in a bid to attract more members. The meeting tomorrow will start at 6:30pm with sandwiches provided.
The first two tracks of EP Dumbstruck are mixed by Chris Sheldon, whose CV reads like the track listing for an indie rock compilation album. That’s an excellent clue to what the Dacoits are all about: indie rock in the Nineties/early Noughties style.