BBC local radio services will undergo £8m per year in cost savings, the BBC Trust has confirmed - as opposed to the £15m in cuts suggested by the Delivering Quality First initiative last October.

While the announcement will come as a partial relief for local radio listeners and staff, it was expected: in January, BBC Chairman Chris Patten asked director-general Mark Thompson to rethink the proposals. 

Then in February, an independent report commissioned by the BBC said local radio should slash its senior management wage bill rather than axe afternoon and evening shows.

Further to the headline £8m figure, the Trust's new service review recommends that "within this, the reductions allocated directly to scope and content have been reduced from £8.5m to around £2.1m".

The Trust also said that one of the most unpopular parts of the initial plans - the sharing or syndicating of afternoon shows across neighbouring local stations - "will be limited to a very small number of stations, either where it already takes place or where there are strong editorial reasons for doing so".

Sport and other community output "will be more protected than originally planned to ensure range and variety", while cuts to on-the-ground journalists and reporters "will be much lower, with additional efficiency savings targeted at reducing layers of management within local stations" - in line with the February report.

The Trust did, however, rubber-stamp several specific cost-saving measures. While afternoon programmes are largely safe, all English regions are to broadcast the same speech-led content on weekday evenings between 7pm and 10pm, with opt-outs for live sport and local news.

In addition, all stations are to revert to BBC 5 Live output between 1am and 6am - at present, bespoke local broadcasts typically begin an hour earlier at 5am.

The Trust said "more detailed work" is needed before a decision is made on the DQF proposal to close down some medium-wave transmissions.