By Dave Gudgeon

Last updated 11:08, Thursday, 07 February 2008

Ofcom will begin a 10-week public consultation period later this year over ITV plans to merge the Carlisle-based news-gathering operation with that of Tyne Tees.

The cost-cutting proposals would mean the end of the Lookaround programme – Britain’s most-watched regional news magazine.

The revelation last autumn prompted a storm of protest from staff, viewers and politicians – and a bid by a consortium of local businessmen to buy the station and save the programme.

The fate of Lookaround now appears to rest with Ofcom, the broadcast industry watchdog, which has yet to consider ITV’s proposals for changes to regional news gathering.

The consultation process is set to begin in September and Mr Maclean, Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border, asked Ofcom officials at a recent meeting to come to Cumbria for the launch.

He said: “They did not say yes – but they did not say no either. I’m hopeful that they will. I’m keen for them come and meet the great and the good of Cumbria as well as hold public meetings. By that I mean councillors and business leaders – people who can tell them just how important Lookaround is.”

Mr Maclean was joined at the meeting by Workington’s Labour MP Tony Cunningham and Westmorland MP Tim Farron, a Liberal Democrat. Scottish MPs were also present. He said: “There was a unity of purpose – no division at all.”

Mr Maclean said the business consortium’s bid to buy Border had proved useful in revealing just how profitable the station was.

DGudgeon@cngroup.co.uk