Grahame Park in Barnet is one of the largest council estate ever built by the old GLC. Some 1,777 homes sit cheek by jowl, or rather drug addled resident by asylum seeker resident, for although the estate was popular when it was originally built, it has been plagued by problems, and it now requires ‘regeneration due to the concentration of vulnerable and disadvantaged people’ – Nu-Labour code speak for it ‘has become a Hell hole’.
Over the next 15 years, it is intended that some 20 million pounds will be spent on bringing it up to modern living standards. That is a significant sum of money to be spent on under 2,000 homes.
So it was with some surprise that I noted included in the budget, the undeclared cost of the ‘first ever’ dedicated television station to be installed in social housing.
Wow!
Why would they spend money on an innovative dedicated television station to serve just one estate when they
cannot find the money to carry out basic maintenance?
The answer is buried deep -
Barnet Homes and partner organisations will use
Grahame Park TV (GPTV) to broadcast short films and messages. The messages will be broadcast from a large screen on The Concourse.
This is the first time that a British social landlord has introduced its own dedicated television station for tenants and leaseholders. Grahame Park residents will be able to wish their friends (sic) on their birthdays, tell a joke or show off their musical skills on GPTV.
Key election messages will also be automatically sent to residents’ mobile phones using Bluetooth.
I do hope that the electoral commission wil be ensuring that a fair balance of ‘key election messages’ is beamed to these vulnerable and disadvantaged people.
AND THE COMMENTS ARE WORTH A LOOK.
I went into the Doctors today. A few months ago a screen was installed in the waiting room. Today it was active. All it played was public service infomercials. All the time, endlessly and I would imagine for as long as the surgery is open. This "service" is run by an operation called the Life Channel: their website is at
http://www.thelifechannel.com/ if you fancy having a look.
Now elsewhere in the blogosphere there are an increasing number of mumblings about the number of government-sponsored advertisements on radio and TV at the moment.
Well, lifechannel is yet another outlet for government propaganda, whether its the new onslaught against drinkers, or blatant misrepresentation about how flexible the NHS is (yeah right!).
However, there's more: lifechannel seems to be installed in schools as well as doctor's surgeries. Is it really right that such a service is installed in schools? I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be.
I'm also pretty sure that taxpayer's money shouldn't be spent on this sort of unneccessary expense in the middle of a financial crisis. This government is literally throwing money away. I would rather live my life without these expensive intrusions, thank you very much.
Of course, with little digging, it gets worse: there's a link on the lifechannel website, to another called "The
Community Communication Network.
Yet another waste of money.
Not only that, but very big brother: the government sponsoring the installation of video screens spouting what amounts to propaganda almost 24 hrs a day, at your expense. This is as big a waste of money as the DfID.
Are you happy about that? I'm sure as hell I'm not.
Morg
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