Hattersley and Mottram Community Media

December 2009
The digital TV switchover Response Team, set up by Hattersley & Mottram Community Media (HMCM), made over 400 visits to the homes of older residents all over Tameside to offer support with the retuning of their TV and digital TV equipment following the two phases of the digital TV switchover in November and December 2009.

Thanks to funding from Tameside MBC’s Partnership for Older People project (POPPs) HMCM were able to employ a team of Tameside residents, who were comfortable returning TV’s, to provide the retuning service to people aged 50 or over. The Response Team weren’t technical engineers and none of them were employed in the TV aerial or repair industry but they all felt up to the job of tackling the massive range of TV’s and other TV equipment in people’s homes.

All the Response Team members were recruited from local groups or organisations, where they had been CRB checked because of their voluntary activity. The whole team worked hard to get to the homes of as many as people as possible to get them back watching their TV. One response team member, Wayne Smith said: “Working on the Response Team has been really hard work but every minute of it has been worth it. I don’t know how some people would have coped had we not been here to help out.” Taxi driver Mark Staniforth explained at the end of a hard day: “You go home feeling like you have made a difference and it feels good.”

Muriel Stretton, HMCM Manager explained: “Thanks to everyone who made it possible for us to provide this service, particularly to POPPs for providing the funding and support we needed to set up the team. We are also very grateful to the people working in the organisations who worked with us to port the response team members CRB checks. It was thanks to their ‘can do’ attitude that we were able to recruit the team in time for the TV switchover. Very special thanks go to all the Response Team members Wayne Smith, Brett Stradomsky, Mark Staniforth, Gary Panter, Matthew Nixon, Chris McBain, Shishu Miah and Colin Oates.”