The news that Casualty's 20-year reign in Bristol is definitely to end is a bitter blow to the city.

BBC bosses argue that the move will provide more value for money to licence-fee payers. They fail to add that any savings will be at a cost to Bristol's economy.

In his recent Western Daily Press Comment, Malcolm Bell, the director of tourism for the Government's South West Region, referred to the increasing North-South split, with the poaching of business from the South West to the North.

The North-South divide in funding allocations, where the northern regions get far more funding than do we here in Wessex, results in our region having a mere half-million pounds each year to promote the image and brand of Britain's leading holiday region, a sector bigger than Scotland.

Mr Bell believes that Bristol is losing city-break business to Leeds and Manchester, and Bath is losing customers to York and Chester, while countryside visitors are going to the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District.

Wales and Scotland get high levels of support for tourism, which cannot be unconnected to the fact that they each have devolved governments. Compared with Wessex, the North of England also does well from funding.

Casualty and tourism highlight the way in which Wessex loses out, and will, until there is a Wessex Parliament and a BBC Wessex in Bristol.

T R Spratt Assistant secretary The Wessex Society