Peter Salmon, the director of BBC North, has hit back at the Mail on Sunday after the paper published yet another article critical of the corporation's move to Salford Quays.

The latest Mail attack said the move had suffered "a major setback after a senior manager at flagship news channel Radio 5 Live said the shift north might 'make it sound like a local radio station'."

The paper said Rhian Roberts, Radio 5 Live's head of development, had expressed private concerns about the BBC's relocation in the corporation's 'Risk Register' document.

Here is Salmon's statement in full:

The Mail on Sunday yesterday followed up the publication of BBC North's Risk Register, "Boss warns 5 Live in the North will sound 'like local radio' in embarrassing memo".

As I wrote in a blog last week, the BBC - like every big public organisation - has a Risk Register in which we ask departments to log the broadest range of hypothetical risks that could happen. However that doesn't mean that we expect them to occur. And what the Mail On Sunday has chosen not to include are the controls and mitigations that the BBC has put in place to counter these risk should they arise.

In the case of Radio 5 live this includes the fact that a section of Newsgathering is moving to Salford; we are maintaining a Radio 5 live presence in the London newsroom; we are increasing collaboration across the News operations situated in Salford Quays to make planning and execution of response to events more efficient, and finally that the BBC Breakfast move will increase our journalistic presence and will also further focus the energy and processes of Newsgathering on-site.

BBC North will always have its naysayers, but the move remains on time and on budget. The article perpetuates the myth that the project is costing £877m and that 'scores of staff' have not moved. The reality is very different. The cost of the project is just under £200m and 55% of staff have opted to move - significantly higher than the 35% national average for a move of this scale and ambition.

We have over 700 people now working across the site and in terms of Radio 5 live with very few exceptions most of the talent are moving with the station, alongside a high percentage of the production teams. I have every confidence that the strong senior and middle management team at the network will rise to any challenge they might face.