The BBC has been criticised for trying to muscle in on Local Television (Local TV).

Rival broadcasters believe it will stifle the commercial local television market before it even takes off.

The criticism, which took place at a Westminster Forum into Local TV, came as Andy Griffee, controller of English regions at the BBC, outlined plans for the introduction of 60 local television channels around the UK.

The plan is based on a current pilot scheme, which has cost £3m of public money. Tim Bowdler, chief executive of Johnston Press, said said it was a waste.

“There is no need for public money to be spent on local television. Yes, it’s nice but there is no need,” he said at the forum.

Kevin Stuart, chief executive of Tindle Radio, agreed and described the BBC as the “Tesco” of the broadcasting industry and claimed its venture would dent local creativity.

“By introducing [this medium] the BBC will become the Tesco Express of local TV.

“It will come in with a huge amount of resources which local TV stations cannot afford. As a result it will totally dominate the local market before commercial stations can establish themselves,” he said at the forum.

He also expressed fears that this in turn could stump the creativity and quality “which is often generated by locals who take part in such stations”.

This is because Local TV targets communities through streaming TV via a broadband connection. It has the potential to provide a range of news, programmes and weather reports specifically tailored to needs and tastes in certain areas.

Many broadcasters of this genre, such as ITV and Channel M, have outlined plans to give residents the opportunity to become citizen journalists to report on areas of interest and create user-generated content.

“Local TV can be provided well enough by local communities it will be better coming from local people than from the BBC who are [predominantly] based in London,” Mr Stewart told Computeractive.

“It is down to government regulators [such as Ofcom] to change their policies in the local TV operating area to ensure that this is not allowed to happen.”

However, Mr Grifee denied such accusations and said there was plenty of room for commercial radio to grow.

“There are 13,000 local newspapers operating in print and online nationwide, local news,” he told the forum. “If the idea goes ahead we will have around 60 local TV services across the ground and we will be rolling it out in four to five years, which will give commercial TV stations plenty of time to settle,” he said.

Neither the BBC Trust, which is an independent body that assesses the value of any broadcast proposals, or Broadcast regulator Ofcom, would comment directly on the BBC’s case as it had not yet reached the review stage.

However, a spokesperson for Ofcom said that the “market impact assessment was a key criteria in any proposal”.