Articles printed in The Eye are written by a crew of contributors and edited by the multi-award successful former BBC information and present affairs reporter, Phil Parry.
A digital on-line ‘tour’ of the controversial £100 million BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW) headquarters has been condemned by workers, with one saying the video is “Stalinist”, and one other who labored for a few years on the company declaring that the brand new constructing is a logo of elitism, it has emerged.
The price of the construction in Cardiff’s Central Sq. must be set in opposition to the worth of the annual licence charge, paid by everybody, a senior determine who labored in a number of departments proclaimed.
He instructed The Eye: “The important thing factor is the £150 plus annual licence charge, and the importance of the truth that the neighbours of the BBC in Central Sq. are Butetown & Grangetown, two of probably the most underprivileged areas of Wales.
“It’s (the brand new constructing is) for the privileged amid a value of residing disaster for odd individuals.”
One other who works now within the Central Sq. workplaces, stated: “”This (the web tour) is a Stalinist view of historical past. They’ve airbrushed out all of the controversies across the new constructing, and that it was so late. A inventive buzz right here is missing, as we had within the previous BH”.
An additional worker instructed us: “Nothing WORKS right here!”.
Our personal Editor Phil Parry, who held roles on the previous Llandaff headquarters of BBC CW, acknowledged: “That is unbelievable. Employees are telling me they’re offended they didn’t transfer in earlier than the lockdown, and that transferring there was only a method of reducing jobs. NONE of that is mirrored within the video!”.
The lengthy delay in transferring in was a selected concern.
Anxious workers instructed us of their deep fear that they nonetheless had not taken up residence, two years after it was handed over, BEFORE the lockdown was imposed.
BBC CW acquired the keys to the brand new headquarters in April 2018, and workers had been instructed it will take 18 months to suit out the constructing, however a number of months after that date handed, tools was nonetheless within the ‘testing’ section, and officers had been unable to say when broadcasting would begin, with the extraordinary delay having a extreme knock-on impact for different broadcasters in Wales, akin to S4C which was resulting from take a variety of desks for employees.
The potential for giving it as a cause for axing workers, has additionally been highlighted by individuals inside.
Personnel in a single division, stated to us they believed that the brand new constructing solely had room for a “fraction” of the numbers then on the payroll, and feared that the transfer was a precursor to merging them with one other space.
In the course of the lockdown many executives needed to make money working from home anyway, making giant components of Central Sq. unnessecary.
One senior supervisor instructed an worker to make money working from home even when the Wi-Fi was not broadcast high quality, with the phrases “don’t fear simply so long as it’s audible, and The Eye’s satirist Edwin Phillips made enjoyable of the entire enterprise.
However officers clearly confirmed their strategy to the media’s questions concerning the headquarters, within the perspective in the direction of queries concerning the viewers figures for BBC CW Radio Wales (BBC CW RW) which is broadcast from there.
One listener was instructed: “We aren’t… obliged to provide data…”, and Mr Parry has prior to now been refused an interview with Director of Nations on the BBC and Director of BBC CW, Rhodri Talfan Davies.
Mr Parry, was instructed by the Press Workplace in a prolonged e-mail alternate over greater than six months, that Mr Davies can be accessible for interview. Query areas had been supplied, and the BBC CW official was instructed the interview might be carried out over the phone. Mr Parry was then knowledgeable that an interview wouldn’t, in reality, be granted.
But mockingly, it’s been introduced that the brand new constructing was designed to make the company extra open.
Mr Davies stated excitedly: “Central Sq. is all about opening up… the improbable location implies that we’ll be extra accessible.
“As a part of the drive to ‘open up’, inclusion is a key a part of the design of Central Sq. all through.”
Mr Davies additionally gave the impression to be constructive concerning the timescale for formally ‘opening up’ the brand new headquarters.
He instructed workers: “On Central Sq., we are actually in an intense interval of testing and coaching – it’s a hive of exercise…”.
In the meantime, the plight of the previous constructing grew to become a supply of concern.
Mr Parry, who labored as a journalist there for 23 years, stated that it was a “unhappy sight”, whereas a former presenter on BBC Cymru Radio Wales (RW) declared: “Llandaff was a super location”.
The one-time RW afternoon DJ, Mike Flynn, who was described on Wkipedia as a “… most important presenter for the primary decade on air … who hosted a present every weekday till 1989”, has condemned what has occurred.
He instructed The Eye: “There was loads of potential within the location to soak up each the brand new rented website and the brand new operations in Cardiff Bay. The BBC has been enjoying the cash sport for years.
“Llandaff was a beautiful inventive place destroyed by mismanagement. Sadly a lot of the BBC output lately is rubbish. Rhodri Talfan Davies ought to resign.”
Iolo ap Dafydd, who was a tv presenter within the previous constructing, declared on Twitter: “(It) In all probability might have been renovated reasonably than demolished. But to be seen how new developments impacts Llandaf. Metropolis centre appears to be like notably grim“.
Climate forecaster Sian Lloyd stated: “I used to adore it there (BH Llandaff). Sigh”.
Newsreader Huw Edwards acknowledged on the social media website: “Fairly unusual to see the enduring (hashtag) BBC Constructing in (hashtag) Llandaff being raised (sic) to the bottom”.
Clearly greater than easy misspelling has alarmed workers on the new Cardiff HQ of BBC CW, with one saying a video about it’s “Stalinist”, one other saying that ‘nothing works’, and an additional senior determine proclaiming that it was a logo of elitism…
Publication of one other ebook, nevertheless, was refused, as a result of it was to have included names.
