Hello and, as ever, a huge thank you for supporting and sharing this petition.
I thought I would share with you the email, I have just sent to Tim Davie. Feel free to email him too although I am beginning to wonder if it is a direct link to his waste paper basket.
Dear Mr Davie,
This is the fifth email I have written to you with regard to the cancellation of Autumnwatch and I do hope I finally receive a reply. I am beginning to wonder if there is anyone actually reading your emails or if it’s an address given just to placate us. I am going to share this email with the 153,888 people, so far, who have signed the petition I started on Change.org, so I do hope I can also share a response.
We have received the ‘cut and paste’ standard reply, your complaints department sent out, regardless of the questions we ask. It is answers to specific questions that I am hoping for.
You state that Autumnwatch is being cancelled due to financial reasons and I do hope it has nothing to do with pressure from any outside agencies who like to slaughter, at that time of year, the millions of non-native animals they’ve released.
I am currently being bombarded with adverts on the BBC for upcoming programmes. It appears that some lucky people and camera crews got a free trip across Canada with the hope of wining £20,000. Meanwhile you plan to fly another group to a tropical island with the chance of winning £100,000. I bet filming that will cost a bob or two. And recently the prize on The Wheel was £52,000. And yet you are not willing to pay for 8 hours of British Wildlife viewing in the UK in November.
Do you care what the people who pay the licence fee think about this or are you only focused on winning back the younger age groups and making programmes you can sell around the world?
8 hours, three times a year. Show casing the wildlife we love and need to care for. Supporting the nation’s mental health. Doing your bit to get us out there looking at the beauty around us and caring for it. Is that so much to ask? We’re not asking for a £100,000 prize at the end.
I am planning to deliver the petition to the BBC soon. It would be good to meet you then.
Yours, hoping for a reply,
Marion Veal