THE fight to save local BBC television may have been won three months ago, but now battle lines are being drawn to protect Radio Oxford.

Corporation bosses yesterday announced it plans to axe 2,000 jobs nationwide to make savings of £670m by 2016 – a cut of 20 per cent.

In response, the BBC Trust launched a consultation on the future of English local radio and the Asian network, which runs until December 21.

In July, the director general Mark Thompson, who lives in Oxford, vowed that the corporation “won’t be closing any local radio stations or television regions”. And he ruled out proposals to merge large portions of local radio with BBC Radio Five Live.

Oxford and District NUJ branch secretary Anna Wagstaff said: “It is clear that BBC local radio services are still under threat.

“For the BBC as a whole, the local services are what makes it a national broadcaster but you cannot do that job properly with a skeleton staff.”

She urged people in Oxfordshire to take part in the consultation, to support Radio Oxford which reaches in excess of 70,000 listeners a week.

Ms Wagstaff added: “When local TV news was under threat we collected 1,000 signatures for a petition in a very short space of time.

“We are pleased that Mark Thompson recognised that local communities want and value local news on the BBC but people need to make their voices heard again by taking part in this consultation.”

Ms Wagstaff estimated that about 40 staff worked for Radio Oxford out of about 100 staff working for the BBC in Summertown.

The public consultation can be found at bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/local_radio.shtml