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The Communications Minister Ed Vaizey says the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú should think "very carefully" about any plans to reduce the daytime output of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú local radio.

There is talk at the moment of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú perhaps reducing local radio output to just breakfast and drivetime with a sustaining service - perhaps Radio 5 Live - during the rest of the day.

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú insists that no decision has been made and that it's looking at a wide range of options in order to save money.

This afternoon Mr Vaizey visited Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio Norfolk and met staff who produce and present the daytime output.

"We had a debate on this issue in Parliament yesterday," he later told us, "and a lot of MPs expressed their strong views about the quality of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú local radio.

"I think the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú will want to think very carefully about this because the case that's been to made to me, which is very convincing is that, yes, figures dip during the day because people go out to work but you've got to see the whole thing as a whole, you can't go local, go national, go local. It's got to be coherent."

It was Therese Coffey, the Conservatives' Suffolk Coastal MP, who secured that debate about the future of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú local radio.

She praised the service saying:"They support community moments, where local radio truly excels, such as the Proms at the Albert Hall being taken to the local celebration party, or the royal wedding coming up on 29 April."

She is keen to stop the recently floated idea to centralise local radio. "Leiston FC probably would not get commentary on Radio 5 Live, even though they are about to win their championship and get promoted into the Ryman League premier division, but somehow I think that matters to the people of Suffolk."

So far Ms Coffey has the support of 66 MPs from across the political spectrum for her Early Day Motion to save Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú local radio.

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