OLDBURY residents watching the BBC's lunchtime news were hit with a 'bombshell' today - that a nuclear power plant is being built in their town.
In an item on Hitachi's decision to suspend billion-pound work on UK nuclear projects, the BBC screened a map identifying Oldbury as one of their sites.
That would have been news to everyone in the town - and to us here at The News too.
Hey @bbcnews you've just marked a nucelar power station the the News at 1 as being in Oldbury, West Mids when it should be Oldbury-Upon-Severn, Glos.
— Paul Kerton (@mrkerton) January 17, 2019
It was, of course, an error - the BBC's news team had mistaken Oldbury in the West Midlands for Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire, the real proposed location.
The two places are only an hour and 20 mins apart - but we can confirm 'our' Oldbury is definitely not the planned nucleus of Hitachi's operation.
The error sparked a nuclear fallout among social media users - as the BBC found out, Oldbury folk and geographic pedants alike were quick to get up and atom.
As for the embarrassed journalists, well a few people might well go elsewhere for their news in future - maybe they will tune in to a bit of radio activity instead...
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