A council leader has urged the BBC’s director general to rethink planned cuts to local radio output.

Lezley Pickton, of Shropshire Council, said the local service was a “lifeline” in the large rural county.

The Conservative leader wrote to Tim Davie: “Please save BBC Radio Shropshire for the sake of the county’s most vulnerable and isolated people.”

The BBC said it was making some changes to plans aimed at modernising local services in England after feedback.

The proposals, announced in October, would prioritise digital content and “grow the value we deliver to local audiences everywhere”, it said.

Under the plans, the 39 local radio stations in the country will share more shows.

Ms Pickton said sharing some output with stations such as in Stoke and Hereford and Worcester would “dramatically reduce” Shropshire-based programming.

In a letter, which the local authority published online, Ms Pickton said: “You’re a busy man so I’ll get straight to the point: the people of Shropshire need you to reverse the proposals to effectively merge BBC Radio Shropshire with other local West Midlands radio.”

The county had a “disproportionately older” population and was an area where about 25% of people were “digitally excluded”, the councillor said.

For actor Annabelle Dowler, recording the Archers under lockdown involved making a den in her daughter’s wardrobe by covering it with duvets and an old mattress and hoping her two children didn’t decide they too wanted to be part of the fun.

Dowler, who plays Kirsty Miller, also put a sign on the door warning that mummy was recording the Archers: “Stay away + be silent otherwise you will get into trouble with the BBC and we will have no iPlayer for the rest of the lockdown!!!”

It worked. Dowler is among the characters who will be returning to Radio 4 from Monday in a very different version of the world’s longest-running soap opera.

After a three-week break in which classic episodes have replaced new ones, the Archers will return with Ambridge also under lockdown. It will not be dominated by coronavirus, though. Episodes in the first week include stories about Tracy and Harrison’s rivalry to be captain of the village cricket team and a minor emergency when the forage harvester driven by Josh Archer breaks down.

The government is to consider whether failure to pay the TV licence fee should cease to be a criminal offence, a Treasury minister has said.

Rishi Sunak confirmed Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a review of the sanction for non-payment of the £154.50 charge, which funds the BBC.

Prosecution for non-payment of the fee can currently end in a court appearance and potential fine of up to £1,000.

But the BBC warned decriminalisation could cost it £200m a year.

The Sunday Telegraph reported the consultation had been ordered by the PM after the Conservatives won a majority of 80 at last week’s election.

Asked whether non-payment of the fee should be decriminalised, Mr Sunak told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “That is something the prime minister has said we will look at, and has instructed people to look at that”.

“I think it’s fair to say people find the criminalisation of non-payment of the licence fee to be something that has provoked questions in the past,” he said.

The BBC’s plan to abolish the free TV licence for over-75s could push more than 50,000 UK pensioners below the poverty line, a charity has warned.

Currently, households with people over 75 are entitled to a free TV licence. However, the BBC is looking to reform the subsidy after projections showed the free licence scheme could cost the corporation £745m by 2022.

In November the corporation announced it would no longer provide the funding to sustain the scheme and would be holding public consultations about introducing “means-based testing” for the elderly instead.

Age UK now wants the government to take back responsibility for funding free TV licences, saying the scheme helps millions sustain their quality of life into late old age.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “Scrapping the free TV licence would be a real blow for many older people who already have many other challenges to contend with.

“Millions of older people, particularly those who are lonely or housebound with disabilities, rely on their TV as their trusted companion and window on the world, and it would be cruel indeed to undermine this in any way.”

The BBC director general, Tony Hall, has warned that further cuts to the corporation’s funding and remit could result in more than 30,000 job losses across the TV industry.

Speaking ahead of a keynote speech by the culture secretary, John Whittingdale, at the Guardian Edinburgh International TV festival that is expected to be critical of the BBC, Hall said that cuts to licence fee income would result in an economic downturn that would stretch beyond the corporation itself.

“New research shows that, because of the boost the BBC provides, if you cut the licence fee by 25% you’d lose about 32,000 jobs across the whole economy,” said Hall. “These aren’t just jobs at the BBC, but across the TV industry – at independent producers, suppliers and studios up and down the country.”

Whittingdale is carrying out a review of the BBC ahead of charter renewal next year, questioning whether the corporation should continue to try to be “all things to all people” or be given a much narrower focus.

The BBC will back a radical overhaul of the licence fee, paving the way for the end of the current system of funding the state broadcaster, the Corporation’s head, Tony Hall, is expected to say today.

In a speech to staff at Broadcasting House, Lord Hall is expected to indicate the Corporation’s backing for a broadcasting levy that would apply to every household, regardless of whether they have a television.

Last week the parliamentary Culture, Media and Sport Committee said the £145.50 annual licence fee should ultimately be replaced by a German-style “broadcasting levy” that would apply to every household. The change would allow the BBC to collect funds from the estimated 500,000 households which claim not to have a television or only watch programmes on-demand through platforms like the BBC iPlayer.