The Central South region was disbanded in December 2006 after 17 years in operation – with the eastern half of the area merging with Meridian's North region to form an ITV Thames Valley region. At the same time, ITV West's broadcast footprint was expanded to cover North Gloucestershire from the West's Bristol studios, while Herefordshire re-joined Central News West from Birmingham. While all Thames Valley news programmes were broadcast from Meridian's studios in Whiteley in Hampshire, Central's former Abingdon base was retained as a newsgathering centre.