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.
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Sheesh – have these people actually read 1984? On the other hand – maybe they have but thought it was a plan, not a warning.
I see no signs of totalitarianism there, no sir!
You couldn’t make this up, but please tell me you have made this up.
No doubt, these poor, disadvataged residents will be provided – free of charge, of course – with 54″ plasma set upon which to watch their nice, new station.
Unbelievable!
It’s only money, and there must be more of it sloshing around than the media has told us about.
I copy here Delphius1′s post on the Public Intimidation Films thread because just a bit of this might find its way onto the big screens at Grahame Park in between the Labour election campaign broadcasts and the ‘Sell Us Your Gold’ adverts…
……….
8 Delphius1 February 20, 2010 at 18:10
It gets worse. Look at this entry I made yeaterday about the lifechannel and the Community Communication Network.
http://delphiusdebate.blogspot.com/2010/02/lifechannel.html
Thats right, government propaganda piped direct to your GP surgery, your local shopping centre, community centre and elsewhere. Plus, most sinister: your local school.
Why on God’s earth taxpayers should be funding what amounts to 24 hour party polictical broadcasts and socialist propaganda beats me. But its par for the course with Labour, who see nothing wrong in using taxpayer’s money to promote their political message.
…….
Education, education, education or Indoctrination, indoctrination, indoctrination?
The day will come, Gloria, when there is piped communication from the ‘Masters’ in every living room, every place of work, Barnet is just the pilot project!
I thought the BBC were already doing that.
Please can we have 2 minutes hate on the village green? Can we sir, can we? O, please say we can………. SO WE CAN SMASH UP THIS TAT, AND THE MUPPETS BEHIND IT, AND EITHER INSTALL A PROPER GOVERNMENT OR ELSE DO WITHOUT ONE ALTOGETHER!
Anna
Can I nick this complete?
I’ll provide a link to here.
Oh – and expect savage penalties for damaging said propaganda screens.
I wrote a reply explaining why I couldn’t fight outrage-fatigue any more and pressed submit, only to find that I hadn’t re-entered my details in the asterisked fields following one of our all-too frequent power cuts and the whole post was lost. Anyway, I was only beefing on about Blair being allowed to deflect the Chilcot Inquiry from ‘the March 2003 question’ to the ’2010 question’. How did he get to spend an entire afternoon bleating about what he saw as ‘beyond doubt’ without being told to cut the cr*p and stick to the 2003 question and answer it properly?
If the press didn’t jump on this, why is if going to jump on Govt. propaganda being piped into a sink estate? I’m heartily fed up now.
I’m just signing off. I may be some time.
Actually, based on my experience £20m for updating 1,777 homes at Grahame Park is pretty good value for modernising low spec energy inefficient seventies properties. Windows, CH. insulation , new kitchen and bathroom would be required. whatever the maintenance regime, and that budget is always first to be cut, allowing cheaply remedied problems to balloon into cba for demolition and rebuild. What would help is whole life costing for housing and more responsibility for routine maintenance passed onto tenants in return for sweat equity rent reductions.
Given that they already own the land and can negotiate hard with desperate buidling forms, wouldn’t it be cheaper just to flatten the lot and rebuild from scratch?
Or just flatten the lot anyway, and redistribute the disadvantaged and miserable somewhere else, like Poland?
building firms
too much eggnog, sorry
Hysteria
It IS a blueprint.
11,255 pounds per property, sounds reasonable. Over 15 yrs, 750 pounds a year. Not a lot. Community TV, priceless.
We have a cheaper one, it is called a front window.
Over three decades ago I lived and worked in North Shields. Nearby is the notorious Meadowell estate. Like a lot of these places, it had such a terrible reputation that they changed the name in a effort to disassociate the area from its past. According to Wikipedia it has had £66 million spent on it.
I visited Meadowell on many occasions. It was vile; doors hanging off hinges, wrecked cars, dogs running wild, etc, and the houses were often filthy. The only working and reasonably modern appliance was a TV.
Anyway, I was told that families were moved into newly refurbished homes on the Meadowell, and then moved out 18 months later when they had wrecked them, only to have to refurbish them again and of course, re-house the wreckers.
There comes a point, does there not, when providing brand new housing for those who will disregard all social mores, and those who have made no contribution to society other than to provide job creation schemes for social workers, should come to an end.
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