Katrina Bunker, senior BBC head of content production for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire has responded to recent criticisms of the organisation.ShewrotetoustoandsaiditwasinresponsetoconcernsthathavebeenraisedaboutthefutureoflocalBBCradio
I was born and raised in Yorkshire, and when I was younger, I always dreamed of working at the BBC.
By the age of 17, I was volunteering at BBC Radio Sheffield and found it so inspiring (even though I only started out making the tea!) that I stayed.
And 25 years on, I’ve been lucky enough to work in many different jobs at the BBC, eventually becoming editor of the very station where I began my career.
Now, as senior head of content production for Yorkshire, I am one part of the BBC’s efforts to better represent and invest in the region I still call home.
Places like Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford, City of Culture, have always been creative powerhouses in their own right. But with the BBC’s Across the UK Strategy (ATUK) announced nearly two years ago, this creativity is being enhanced and amplified to ensure we bring value to all audiences.
It's been a stellar year for TV programming in Yorkshire. Our tears barely dried from that Happy Valley finale before the next drama instalment hit our screens in the form of Better, a gritty crime story filmed in Leeds,
Bradford and the surrounding areas.
Other fantastic dramas since have included Boat Story, a thriller starring Daisy Haggard and Paterson Joseph which was also filmed across the region.
Sheffield is famous for its historic steel industry so what better place to film the returning iconic Gladiators series hosted by Bradley and Barney Walsh, with the main event coming to screens from January 13 – this is one not to miss.
It’s not just drama either, we this year celebrated the arrival of two fantastic BBC News Teams to Leeds – the BBC’s Learning and Identity Team and News and Insight Teams.
With 25 staff members either choosing to relocate to or join the BBC for the first time in this region, both teams are vital to producing some of the nation’s most important education and communityled news stories. Without them, programmes like Panorama and BBC News simply couldn’t happen.
This move also comes with an added investment from the BBC, in the form of an amazing partnership with the National Film and Television School in Leeds.
From personal experience, I have seen the incredible breadth of talent Yorkshire has to offer. Fantastic BBC presenters, including Amy Garcia, Paul Hudson and the much beloved late Harry Gration were all born in this region.
So, I am overjoyed that this partnership will help local budding media professionals to get industry experience and work placements with us in the future.
This is an essential part of our ATUK strategy, and a fundamental legacy we want to leave in the region by creating a pipeline of born and bred Yorkshire talent.
We’ve also recently increased our investment into local journalism, creating 130 additional posts across England, including over 70 investigative journalists, and 11 new investigations teams working across TV, radio and online.
One of these teams is already up and running in Yorkshire uncovering off-diary stories from the heart of our communities – stories that go out across all our daily services online, TV and radio. We believe this offers even greater value to licence-fee payers.
As a public service broadcaster, we know the BBC has a unique and special responsibility to support our local audiences and communities, and that is exactly what we intend to carry on doing.
Are you ready for the next chapter? I know we are.