BBC Coventry and Warwickshire radio station is set to share a programme with other stations more than 60 miles away due to national cuts.

The station, based in Coventry city centre, will broadcast a show shared with Hereford & Worcester and Shropshire on weekday afternoons, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands.

It will keep its breakfast and mid-morning show from 6am-2pm.

But other shows will also be lost as just ten local BBC programmes across the UK are planned to go out from 6-10pm, followed by an 'All England' show.

The changes come as part of cuts to local BBC services across the UK, confirmed by the corporation yesterday.

Rhodri Talfan Davies, BBC Director of Nations, said: "These proposals aim to maintain the distinctiveness of our local services while allowing the BBC to adapt with our audiences and ensure we remain relevant.

"Taken together they will ensure our network of local services – across TV, radio, online and Sounds – offer more value for audiences.

"Of course, real change is never easy – and we will work closely with all our colleagues to introduce these plans sensitively and fairly.

"BBC Local Radio remains an essential service for millions of listeners – the very best local radio network in the world – but it's also essential we make difficult choices that will enable us to reach out to many people that increasingly rely on their mobiles for local content."

But the news has been met with dismay by people in the city.

Professor Helen Wheatley, director of film and television studies at the University of Warwick, tweeted this week: "Really terrible news. BBC CWR has worked so hard to serve our community in the widest, most inclusive sense."

Stuart Linnell MBE was a presenter when Coventry and Warwickshire's first local radio station Mercia Sound launched in 1980, and later worked for BBC Radio Northampton and CWR.

The semi-retired broadcaster, aged 75, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) today: "I am in no doubt that local radio when done properly and managed properly can be the lifeblood of local communities.

"[BBC CWR] is managed very well," he added. "They do so many things, they've got a very good news team.

"We know there are problems with local media across the board [but] people really want local news. They want to know what's going on in their patch."

He praised the stations' coverage of stories such as the Coventry Building Society arena and said reporters have "done a fantastic job."

"To think that we could lose it would be a tragedy."

He added: "It threatens to be a complete loss of local democracy if we're not careful.

"Holding people to account, whether it's the local MP or local council, has never been more important with all that's been happening nationally."