Twelve BBC radio breakfast shows were taken off air due to a strike by local journalists.

The industrial action by the National Union of Journalists led to morning programming being affected at the BBC’s stations in Nottingham, Derby, Cumbria, Merseyside, Manchester, Leeds, Hereford and Worcester, Humberside, York, Shropshire, Solent and Cornwall.

NUJ members working in local journalism at the BBC completed a two-day walkout yesterday in opposition to plans that are set to lead to the loss of up to 139 journalism roles and increased programme sharing.

The strike led to the 12 stations, plus some others, being forced to take news bulletins from BBC Radio 2.

Hereford and Worcester was taken completely off air and took a shared service for the full 48 hours of the strike action, while there was no BBC radio or TV output from the BBC building in Hull at all.

Television services were also afftected, where viewers in the South of England were among several regions who had a sustaining service from the BBC in Salford containing news about Manchester, Cumbria and Teesside.

Many lunchtime and evening TV bulletins were also replaced with other programmes.

The BBC wants to axe 139 local radio roles and reinvest resources in digital services with the proposed creation of 131 new roles.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We understand this is a difficult period of change for many colleagues and we will continue to support everyone affected by the plans to strengthen our local online services across news and audio.

“Our goal is to deliver a local service across TV, radio and online that offers more value to more people in more local communities.

“While the plans do impact on individual roles, we are maintaining our overall investment in local services and expect our overall level of editorial staffing across England to remain unchanged.”