TWO of BBC Radio York's most senior journalists are understood to have volunteered for redundancy, as the corporation continues its cost-cutting drive.

Assistant editor David Dunning and weekend editor Alan Greveson are believed to be among eight members of staff who have offered to take redundancy.

The job losses are being planned as part of Director General Mark Thompson's national drive to save the BBC millions of pounds, which was announced in the spring.

The corporation said today that eight people had put their names forward at Radio York, which employed 45 people in March.

"It is proposed to accept six of these for redundancy, to achieve the station's savings target of £215,000," said a spokeswoman.

"As some of these staff are part-time, a total of four full-time posts are being lost."

She added that the savings proposals had been announced to BBC Radio York staff on Monday, but were still to be agreed following full consultation with the unions.

She declined to confirm the identities of any of the volunteers, saying: "We cannot comment on individual cases or their own personal reasons for seeking redundancy, as this is a personal and private matter between those individuals and the BBC." Mr Dunning and Mr Greveson were unavailable for comment.

Elly Fiorentini, a spokeswoman for the National Union Of Journalists, said the BBC's proposals would be discussed today at a joint meeting of the NUJ and BECTU, the unions which between them represent most staff at the station.

"This will be an opportunity for members to air their concerns", she said.

Latest quarterly listening figures for Radio York show that it had an audience reach of 19 per cent in June, up by two per cent on the figure of 17 per cent for March - and the same as Radio York was achieving last December.

Updated: 10:52 Thursday, October 06, 2005