Once again the BBC is begging for extra funds. There are innumerable areas in which cost could be cut without affecting the quality of the output. I will list some: Reporters photographed against topical (?) backgrounds, Downing Street, Parliament, Ministries, hospitals where accident victims are recuperating, sites where strikes are taking place, houses where some sort of incident has taken place.

In none of these instances does the background add anything to the story and a suitable photograph would serve the purpose just as well, if any background is needed at all. The cost of transport etc must be enormous.

The overkill of reporters at events, the most recent being the Glastonbury Festival where I believe some 200 reporters were deployed. My recollection of the news reports is that this number was out of all proportion to the amount of filming shown.

Deployment of London or Salford based reporters overseas when there are already local reporters on site.

Use of two reporters to read the news.

The fact that this is not necessary is proved by the fact that some bulletins are read by a single reporter.

I am sure there are many other instances of profligacy and I have just picked out these few by observation from this side of the television screen.

Geoffrey Richards, Ashton Road, Hilperton.