Concern expressed over BBC's Welsh politics coverage

The Welsh Assembly's presiding office will write to the BBC Trust to express concern that the corporation's coverage of Welsh politics could be "damaged" by the cost-cutting drive.

Rosemary Butler, assembly member for Newport West, told a meeting attended by BBC chiefs that the proposed cuts, which will result in up to 2,000 job losses and the scaling back of various BBC services, could be damaging to Welsh democracy.

It is understood that the cuts in the BBC's Delivering Quality First initiative will result in the axe of Dragon's Eye, the corporation's flagship political show in Wales.

Butler, whose remarks were leaked to PA, said: "While I understand BBC management here in Wales are operating within tough financial constraints, the information I have heard about the proposed cuts to political programming and how that will affect coverage of events that take place in Wales' principal democratic institution are of principal concern.

"So I ask this question - will Welsh democracy be inevitably damaged if, as appears to be the case, programming dedicated to the coverage of the work we do here, in this building, is scrapped and not directly replaced? It's a question I proposed to take up with the BBC Trust."

BBC Wales is facing a budget cut of 16%, which will result in various programmes being dropped and the net loss of around 100 jobs over the next five years.

Dragon's Eye is among the programmes under threat, with reported plans to replace it with an independently-produced politics show with a "wider remit".

The BBC's Wednesday afternoon broadcast of the am:pm political show will also be axed, while live coverage of the spring party conference is to be reviewed.

BBC director Mark Thompson is facing a vote of no confidence from unions over what they claim is his "butchery" of the corporation in the recent cuts.

Last month, Thompson was also challenged by a BBC local radio executive to justify why local radio services were facing wide-ranging cuts, while BBC Radio 4 has remained "untouched".