THE historic BBC move to Salford is to go ahead, it was confirmed today.

Five BBC departments - including Sport, Children's and Radio Five Live - will transfer north by 2011, along with 1,500 jobs.

It marks a new era for the BBC and fires the starting gun for other media and technology companies to join them at Salford's Media City.

The cost of the move has been reduced from é400m to around é250m after tough negotiations between the BBC, land owner Peel Holdings and its partners.

Savings have been found in the project without affecting the scale of the switch from London. The BBC will, for example, lease offices and studios on the 200-acre Salford site and not have to pay building costs.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell today announced a lower licence fee settlement than the BBC wanted, leaving the corporation with difficult choices ahead.

But both the government and the BBC are now agreed that nothing can stop the Salford move, subject to the completion of final legal negotiations with Media City. The new BBC Trust, which has replaced the BBC Board of Governors, is also ready to give the project a final green light.

BBC director general Mark Thompson today described the licence fee settlement as "a real disappointment" but added: "Salford should go ahead."

He went on: "Given the deal we have struck and what we now know about the costs of the `do nothing' option in London, the case for Salford is economically as well as creatively compelling."

Facilities

It will create the biggest broadcasting and media centre outside London, with state-of-the-art facilities at the forefront of future developments.

An estimated 15,000 extra jobs across the north of England will be created, with a boost to the economy by é200m

Salford City Council believes Media City will deliver an eventual total of é1.5 billion to the regional economy.

Mr Thompson, who first announced the Greater Manchester plan over two years ago, was determined to push it through.

Visiting the Media City site last year, he gave it his personal backing, describing it as a "compelling vision" and a leap into the future "of global significance".

Ministers and Labour MPs also supported the move out of the capital and the outgoing chairman of the BBC governors gave it a ringing endorsement, saying: "The BBC has been too London-centric for too long."

'Massive change'

The governors said they were satisfied the transfer north was value for money for all licence fee payers, with the BBC "on the brink of massive change".

Some 800 staff will also move to Salford from the BBC's current Manchester HQ in Oxford Road, which is to close.

But the project has been put back to the first half of 2011 because of the long delay until today of the government announcement on the licence fee settlement.

The TV licence fee will rise by three per cent in each of the next two years, as part of the new BBC settlement. The current é131.50 fee will go up to é135 in April and around é151 by 2012.

Felicity Goodey, interim chief executive of MediaCity: UK, said it was a "historic day" for both Salford and the BBC.

She told the MEN: "What the BBC has bought into here is the big vision of Media City, which will give the creative industries an enormous boost and make them globally competitive.

"It really is exciting because we're talking about a major national project. This is about the future of Britain's media, new media and creative industries. And the glorious thing for all of us in the north is, it's going to happen here. This is where it's going to be spearheaded.

"The project is much bigger than the BBC. But the BBC is that all important catalyst that gets the whole chain reaction going."

WHAT do you think of the BBC move north now it's confirmed? Have your say.

FOR details on the move, visit the scheme's website.