A council has apologised for the lack of notice after village tenants had their TV cut off. The television services paid for through their rent by tenants in the Swindon's Railway Village were turned off - severing an important source of entertainment and information for 200 people.
The Victorian railway worker’s cottages are listed and the whole area is a Conservation area. It means residents - many of them elderly - are not allowed external aerials or satellite dishes on the outside of their homes.
For more than a decade Swindon Borough Council has had a deal with Virgin Media for its Railway Village tenants who pay an extra £2 per week in rent to receive a basic cable television package - until last week. Kenneth Butler, 90, who lives there, told Wiltshire Live: “I turned it on in the morning and there was nothing and it told me I had to subscribe.
“Later that day I picked up the post and there was a hand-delivered letter dated for Thursday, telling me the contract with Virgin was ending the following Monday and the council would stop taking the extra rent from Monday. Apart from anything else, I’ve paid for five days of television I didn’t get. But it was really short notice. I watch TV most of the day, and I was sitting here looking at a blank screen.
“I had to go over to the waiting room to watch the football and I had to pay for the beer. Perhaps I should ask the council to reimburse me."
Mr Butler said that he is able to get television with BT when a new box is delivered as he has broadband with them. But there is no such luck for the elderly woman with learning difficulties Anton Knapman and his wife help and care for.
He said: “The television was on all day every day and she’s now distressed because she doesn’t have it. I’ve spoken to Virgin but my friend doesn’t need broadband, she just needs television, and to get that she’d need an expensive aerial in the roof, which will cost £200. It’s a real shame this has happened with such poor communications."
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A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said: “We have enormous sympathy with our tenants because they should have been notified much earlier about the change to their cable TV service. This was an oversight on our part and we’d like to sincerely apologise for any anxiety caused.
“The service has been in place for a number of years and, as a result, Virgin Media decided it could no longer support the technology or the third-party contract the company had with the council to provide the service. We tried to find another provider but ran into the same problems.
“External aerial and satellite dishes on properties cannot be considered due to the Railway Village’s unique heritage status, but we are working closely with tenants to support them and Virgin Media has offered to install broadband for free, if customers wish to remain with them to access their TV services online.
A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “Historically we have offered these types of bulk services to a very small number of customers, including Swindon Borough Council, but over recent years we have moved to simplify our customer base and we now require an end user for customers’ contracts.
"We have been in discussions with the council for some time to give them and impacted residents sufficient notice, and agreed with the council in January 2022 that we would be closing this service down. We have offered to arrange delivery of a Hub for any customers who want to retain our service by adding broadband to their TV package, and for customers who don’t currently have an internet connection we’ve offered to provide free installation."
