Dear Sir or Madam,

Please can you inform me of your intentions for managing the
provision of digital TV in preparation for analogue switch-off for
the residents of your council-run properties. I would like to know
what process is being used to establish the needs of residents,
costs to residents and services to be provided.

Yours faithfully,

Michael

Dear Mr Grade

Please find attached, a copy of the acknoweledgement to your recent FOI
request.

Regards

Jermaine Humes

HackneyHomes

Principal Housing Complaints Officer

Housing Services

136-142 Lower Clapton Road

London E5 0QD

TEL: 020 8356 5022

FAX: 020 8356 5091/2271

Email: [email address]

Hackney Council may exercise its right to intercept any communication with any employee or agent of the Council using its telephony or data networks. By using these networks you give your consent to Hackney Council monitoring and recording your communication.

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Dear Mr Grade

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. The information that
you are seeking is held by Hackney Homes. Hackney Homes are a separate
organisation from the Council who manages the Council's Housing
function. FOI requests need to be made separately to them. I have
forwarded your request to Trish Hail, email:
[email address], Head of IT, in Hackney Homes.

Kind regards.

Aysha Mukhtar
Information Governance Officer

6-15 Florfield Road
London E8 1DT
Tel: 0208 356 4032
Fax: 0208 356 2598
Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

Phone: 020 8356 5022
Our ref: LBH41202-08

Fax: 020 8356 2271
Your ref:

E-mail: [email address]
Date: 13th August 2008

Mr Michael Grade

[FOI #1631 email]

Dear Grade

Re: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your request for information which was logged on 11th
August 2008.

I have attached a copy of the Report: on the installation of an
Integrated Reception System (IRS) to Hackney Homes housing estate
properties

which is being provided under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I hope you will find this helpful.

Yours sincerely

KARL MOORE

Principal Complaints Officer

Housing Complaints Team

Hackney Council may exercise its right to intercept any communication with any employee or agent of the Council using its telephony or data networks. By using these networks you give your consent to Hackney Council monitoring and recording your communication.

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For further information about Hackney Council policies please contact Hackney Service Centre on: 020 8356 3000

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Dear Mr Grade

Please find attached a copy of the response to your FOI request and the accompanying report which you stated was not received.

Please accept my apologies

Regards

Jermaine Humes

HackneyHomes

Principal Housing Complaints Officer

Housing Services

136-142 Lower Clapton Road

London E5 0QD

TEL: 020 8356 5022

FAX: 020 8356 5091/2271

Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

Dear Housing Complaints,

Thank you for sending this on again. My chase had actually related
to the follow up request that I made to clarify some of the details
from the report. Below is the text from the follow up enquiry -
submitted on 13th August.
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/di...

"Dear Karl Moore,

Thank you very much for your very helpful response to my Freedom of
Information request relating to digital TV switchover in your
council run properties. Could you I just clarify a few points from
the report for my information?

On p.3 of the report, it states, "Local authorities are being
advised that when they install the new digital aerial equipment
they install the one which allows a foreign satellite connection."
Could you please clarify who provided this advise and which
organisations were consulted in order to fully inform the decision?
Please could you provide copies of any communication provided by
these organisations, or outline their contents if they are not
available, to demonstrate how they helped to inform your research
and proposal.

Could you also provide details of the " Formal and statutory
Leaseholder consultation commenced in June 2008." noted on page 4
outlining what the relevant formal and statutory obligations are
for this process.

Finally, could you provide the final results of the consultation
and provide context with the percentage of total householders.

many thanks again, Michael."

Please can you respond to these more specific questions?

Yours sincerely,

Michael Grade

Phone: 020 8356 5022
Our ref: LBH41202-08

Fax: 020 8356 2271
Your ref:

E-mail: [email address]
Date: 7th October 2008

Mr Michael Grade

[FOI #1631 email]

Dear Mr Grade

Re: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your request for further information in regards to our
original response to the Freedom of Information enquiry -

Digital TV Switchover in Local Authority Properties

Hackney Homes attended seminars on the Digital Switchover and has spoken
to other local authorities in London, as to how they were approaching
this major change. We also contacted local authorities in the North of
England, who already had their switchover plans in progress, to obtain
as wider knowledge as possible, which would enable us to learn from
their experiences; as importantly, what their customers were saying.

The Department for Communities and Local Government advised that we also
need to improve residents access to services and information and to
promote their wellbeing. In terms of the wide and diverse communities
that already exist, within the London Borough of Hackney, this would
mean that we need to consider their choice of viewing options. They went
onto say, in the Digital UK Briefing paper, "The Government has a stated
policy of maximising the choice of digital platforms available for
everyone - that is, receiving digital TV signals through terrestrial,
satellite, cable or broadband means. For communal TV systems, much as
for simple domestic systems, there is a choice of how top upgrade. There
are many factors that will affect how a communal TV system is upgraded -
cost and budget, the services that residents actually want (and
languages they require) and the existing number of self-installed TV
aerials and satellite dishes".

Digital UK also said that we should listen to the views of residents,
and take into consideration the choice of viewing options that they wish
to have. In their Good Practice briefing, they state that "TV is an
important part of most people's lives. Talking to residents to determine
what they want and need, now and in the future, may avoid difficulties
down the line".

Other local authorities had stated, that they had taken residents choice
of viewing options into consideration, when deciding what option they
would finally agree upon. Some local authorities, with a more diverse
community, included the option for an ethnic satellite, in addition to
the Sky satellite.

Through our Hackney Homes Residents Panel, at our initial consultation
day and from the initial postal survey, residents were clear, that they
wanted viewing choice options that included Sky and other ethnic
satellites.

In terms of our Equalities Impact Assessment, it was clear that we had
to consider the option of ethnic satellites, if we were to meet the
demands, aspirations and needs of all our wide and diverse resident
community. The largest ethnic community in Hackney is Turkish. We had
been advised that the following European satellite providers were Astra
(320 TV channels), Eurobird1 (284 TV channels) and Hot Bird (1098 TV
channels). In addition to which there were others such as Turksat and
Arabsat.

From the survey results of 1,756 completed returns (approximately 6% of
residents - tenants & leaseholders); 43% wanted Digital TV, 29% wanted
access to Sky, 5% to Turksat and 5% to Hot Bird. A further 13 satellite
providers were indicated, but these only mentioned by 1 or 2 people for
each option. That is how we arrived at our decision to offer Sky,
Turksat and Hot Bird, as part of the proposed IRS system.

From a planning perspective, we had an excessive numbers of satellite
dishes, erected upon all our blocks of flats and this issue was not
going to be resolved, unless we expended vast staffing, financial and
legal costs to address the problem. We were also aware, that the Courts
were not likely to consider punitive penalties and most unlikely,
evicting tenants or forfeiting the leases of our leaseholders, for
non-compliance with instructions to remove the satellite dishes.

From discussions, it was recognised, that unless we provided a range of
satellite viewing options, the number of satellite dishes would continue
to escalate and have a severe adverse affect upon the communal
environment and further physical damage to the buildings structure.

We are required to have a statutory consultation process, with our
leaseholders, which was in addition to the postal survey forms that we
sent out to every tenant & leaseholder. This is through a Section 20
Notice, served upon every leaseholder and invites them to submit their
comments and any observations. The proposed scheme was outlined to them
and some suggested cost, based upon information that we have obtained.
There was a number of leaseholder responses received and questions
raised; such as to the various aspects of the proposals, including
technical points.

Report by Malcolm Brewer, Neighbourhood Housing Contracts Manager

I trust that this answers the questions that have been raised.

Yours sincerely

Principal Complaints Officer

Housing Complaints Team

Hackney Council may exercise its right to intercept any communication with any employee or agent of the Council using its telephony or data networks. By using these networks you give your consent to Hackney Council monitoring and recording your communication.

If you have received this e-mail in error please delete it immediately and contact the sender.

For further information about Hackney Council policies please contact Hackney Service Centre on: 020 8356 3000

**********************************************************************
London Borough of Hackney may exercise its right to intercept any communication on its networks - for more information see
http://www.hackney.gov.uk/email_disclaim...
**********************************************************************