Welcome to your local community website...
Residents threatened with TV cut-off
Up to 1,600 households have been threatened with having their TV signal cut off in apparent sabre-rattling between Kensington and Chelsea Council and Virgin Media.
A message appeared on TV screens in Kensington and Chelsea TMO-managed properties across the borough last Friday warning that the analogue signal would be turned off on Monday.
Some homes lost signal temporarily on Sunday and, although Virgin Media claimed the message appeared in error and no homes were cut off on Monday, residents and councillors believe the TV company was using the threat as bargaining tool in negotiations with the council over future contracts.
Virgin and the council are currently negotiating contracts for provision of digital TV to TMO properties when the analogue signal is switched off in 2012 and Virgin has said it will cease to provide residents with TV signal after March 31 this year.
Chairman of the Allom and Barlow residents association in Ladbroke Grove, Jose Fernandez, has been contacted by many residents worried about the situation.
He said: "For them to cut so many people off was just heartless. If Virgin shut their signal down that leaves a lot of residents with no TV. Why should they suffer?
"It's also down to the council to keep us switched on. I can't believe that they are saying they knew nothing about this."
Councillor Judith Blakeman added: "It all looks a bit suspicious to me. Vulnerable residents are now being used as innocent and unwitting pawns in this dispute."
In joint statement Kensington and Chelsea Council and TMO said: "Virgin Media have recently intimated that they plan to switch this off on March 31. The Council and the TMO are extremely concerned about the possible impact upon residents and are working with Virgin Media to resolve the situation and avoid any loss of TV reception."
A spokeswoman for Virgin Media said: "Negotiation with the council regarding the provision of analogue TV services to council tenants is ongoing. We are unable to discuss the detail further at this stage."
We'd like to hear from you. Send your stories, pics and videos
Older/Newer
« Council botched 'unacceptably high' obesity figures | Notting Hill to be location for 'new Big Brother' »
Excellent!
Contrary to popular mythology, TV in not a necessity!
In fact, it is the opposite by hypnotising/programming people, and diverting them away from what they really need.
Smash the tv sets and let virgin freeze in the dark!
LOL!
What a selfish and ignorant comment Bert Henry makes. Many vulnerable, elderly and disabled people gain a great deal of enjoyement from their TV - for some, it is their only form of social contact. It is wrong that a company owned by a knight of the realm should employ such socially irresponsible tactics that target the less fortunate.
Er, oh, really? Aside from the obvious wind-up to those with IQs of 3 digits, calling watching TV "their only form of social contact", with a machine, is silly. HINT: LOL means it's a joke.
However – TV is anything but "social interaction” that has made us all LESS SOCIALLY INTERACTIVE, with many vicariously living fake lives off of, for example, the East Enders. Arguably, hiding from the real world.
But it is, "their only form of social contact", as though the elderly prior to the 20th century were so utterly deprived implying there was no "social interaction" nor “contact” with no: theatre, bored(sic) or parlour games nor social clubs back then? Get: real, a life and a grip!
Oh, dear, how could they have existed without:
'I'm a Vacuosity, Get Me Out of Here?' or
The inane masochistic delights of 'Big Brother' or
The bite-sized 24/7 lies and fear called 'NEWS' or
The 'Weather People' getting it wrong or
Glorious 'Live Spurt, er, Sport' from the world over?
Frankly, it appears the "knight of the realm " knows this and in a major depression is not prepared to lose more money unless, of course, it becomes a 'political football' when all of the candidates (at every level) are outraged and pledge to reverse this horrible trend of TV. “Win. Win.”? Yawn.
It is worth noting that Sainsbury's Baked Beans In Tomato Sauce, Basics 420g cost 29 pence each. The £139.50 TVTax divided by 29 pence is 481 and 481 cans of beans will keep you alive for a year. Said TVLiecense won't. The £139.50 TVTax applied to Sainsbury's Spaghetti, Basics 410g £0.14/unit that equals 996 cans that would keep you alive for nearly 3 years. How that diet affects your "social interaction" and "contact" is a different issue.
Meanwhile TVLiecensing/Capita/BBC collects over £ 3 billon p/a, prosecute 500,000-odd people per year, even gaoling some, whilst the government tells us, “the court system is all clogged up,” as an excuse to away the Right of Jury Trials?
No small wonder – that.
And, now, said KINGHT OF THE REALM IS IN THE 'PEAK OIL' BUSINESS - predicting GB's "shortage OF OIL in 5 years" time?
HINT #1: Buying and trading CARBON CREDITS WILL NOT fix anything, but it will stuff the pockets of said TRADERS.
HINT #2: The Climate Changelings are ALL 'useful idiots' and said 'useful idiots' never get paid.
LOL!
Moreover - using this emotional 'vulnerable residents' argument, who must also pay the TV TAX (in tribute for their brainwashing?), to force the RBK&C to spend one penny of COUNCIL TAX or TMO HRA RENT money maintaining and/or supplying any TV (on behalf of Virgin and the BBC, government licensed, corporate cartels) is madness.
Let them eat cable TV subscriptions?
Moreover - using this emotional 'vulnerable residents' argument, who must also pay the TV TAX (in tribute for their brainwashing?), to force the RBK&C to spend one penny of COUNCIL TAX or TMO HRA RENT money maintaining and/or supplying any TV (on behalf of Virgin and the BBC, government licensed, corporate cartels) is madness.
Let them eat cable TV subscriptions?