[Omnipresent]

The combinations make little sense editorially. 

It's odd to put Nottingham together with Derby and Stoke, and then Leicester with Northampton when for listeners the East Midlands means Derby, Leicester and Nottingham and BBC Radio Nottingham shares its premises with East Midlands Today.

I'm not in BBC Local Radio's target demo (formerly known as "Dave and Sue") but I've never felt its punched its weight. 

I remember one Friday evening a major fire broke out in a new student building with a novel design at my old university just before the new university year was to start.  I checked the stream for the local BBC station on BBC Sounds and there was not a mention of it, they just carried on with an inane phone in about baby names.

Given how Five Live is a shadow of its former self, I would be tempted to split it into a separate news and sports network.  Put the sports on Five Live's current frequencies, then merge Five Live News with local radio put resources into decent local opt outs.

One of the many mistakes the BBC has made with the government over the past 12 years is to allow them to impose substantial cuts on the BBC by stealth and not make the government own them.  The BBC needs to make the government own cuts due to the licence fee freeze.