STAFF at Meridian studios in Kent fear the operation may be closed in spite of assurances from bosses.

Uncertainty over the future of the studios at New Hythe, near Maidstone, was fuelled by a remark at an industry dinner in Southampton last week.

A senior executive is reported to have told guests that the Kent operation would close in nine months’ time, being replaced by a single regional production centre from new studios in Fareham, Hampshire.

Lindsay Charlton, Meridian’s managing director, has visited the New Hythe studios, home to the popular Meridian Tonight programme, to try to allay fears.

He told staff - about 50 work at the studios - that closure was only one of several options being looked at and that no final decision had been taken.

But Iain McBride, spokesman for the National Union of Journalists, said members had not been reassured. One had rung him at the weekend in tears, saying that they feared they were about to lose their job.

The NUJ Meridian (Maidstone) chapel has unanimously passed the following resolution: "We were shocked to learn from an aside at a dinner that Granada is considering moving its studios from Maidstone to a site in Hampshire.

"We are disgusted that staff have been treated in such a cavalier manner and we believe any move outside our broadcasting area can only have detrimental consequences for our programme and our relationship with our viewers.

"Our success as one of the most highly rated regional news programmes in Britain is in no small measure due to the fact that we are part of the local community. We appeal to Granada to reconsider this ill-thought out and ill-conceived idea."

Earlier Mr McBride described the newsroom atmosphere as “very glum". He said it would rip the heart out of Meridian Tonight if it were produced or presented 100 miles away. “We face months of uncertainty,” he stressed.

A Meridian source who asked not to be named, was angry about the leaked remark at the Southampton dinner. “We’re furious. We shouldn’t have found out about it in this way.”

Mr Charlton insisted it was business as usual. There were no plans to close the studios but the possible merger of Granada and Carlton would inevitably mean some changes.

“A rumour emerged over the weekend that we were shutting our studios in Maidstone but nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

“They will remain open for as long as I can see but there will be a change to the way we organise our news in Meridian as part of the way all of ITV’s news is organised and co-ordinated.”

He added that Meridian was about to invest millions of pounds in the regional news operation but that depended on the merger going ahead.

“Our commitment to the south east is as strong now as it was the day that Meridian began in 1993,” he said.

Meridian Broadcasting has operated from the New Hythe studios since the early 1990s when it won the commercial television franchise from TVS. It is home to the popular programme Meridian Tonight.

Meridian decided it no longer needed the multi-million pound complex at Vinters Park - now known as the Maidstone Studios - and moved its local news operation to New Hythe.