ANGER is mounting at Meridian’s plans to present the county’s television news from Hampshire.

A powerful alliance of local MPs, council chiefs and television workers is fighting to overturn the controversial proposal triggered by the merger of Granada and Carlton to form a single ITV.

MPs including Sittingbourne and Sheppey’s Derek Wyatt are due to grill television chiefs about the decision on Tuesday at a meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.

Granada wants to slash costs by around £100 million by cutting jobs and property costs. That means buying new equipment that requires fewer staff, and closing studios at New Hythe, near Maidstone.

It has pledged to pump £6m into the Meridian region, most of it in a new production and presentation centre in Fareham, near Portsmouth.

The centre will replace the broadcaster’s main studios in Southampton, which are being sold for housing.

Meridian Tonight, the flagship news programme watched by more viewers than the Kent-based BBC, and other news shows will be presented from Fareham.

The news will be gathered by reporters in Kent, probably based at Maidstone Studios and a new bureau in Ashford. Presenters Geoff Clark and Charlotte Hawkins will spend most of their time in Fareham.

Jonathan Shaw, MP for Chatham and Aylesford, said the strength of Meridian Tonight was that the staff lived in the area and knew the issues.

“The standard of the show is likely to suffer by being beamed in from Fareham,” he said. “It will be difficult for them to have such a Kent and Sussex focus from so far afield. They are taking a serious risk here and what they’re risking is a winning formula.”

He said Kent MPs were “prepared to fight and put as much pressure as we can. I’m hoping that all this pressure will make them change their minds.”

Toy leader Michael Howard and Ashford MP Damian Green have also voiced their concerns.

Mr Clark, a prominent figure in Kent’s business and sporting scene, fears that presenting the show from Hampshire will lose community identity. He said a lot of the success of Meridian Tonight was due to its “regionality".

Speaking at a Meridian briefing in Ashford, he made a veiled criticism of the decision.

“On behalf of Charlotte and I, how nice for the presenter to just drive a few miles from the studios to meet people of the region here in the region,” he said.

Andy Cooper, Meridian’s director of news, said it was not up to him to defend the decision. That was for people “up the line".

He admitted it was a controversial move but it took money “out of bricks and mortar” and put it into programming.

“Clearly, in an ideal world, we wouldn’t do any of these things but ITV is under a lot of pressure from competition in a multi-channel environment,” he said.

There would still be reporting from Kent. “What will be different is that these stories will be transmitted from the new centre. The viewer shouldn’t notice any difference.”

But the Mayor of Maidstone Cllr Morel D’Souza disagreed, saying it was essential to keep presentation in Kent and the county town and to retain “the local feel". Maidstone council was considering what action to take, he said.

Kent County Council leaders are privately furious at what appears to them to be a television snub to the county.