Digital television is to be introduced into the homes of Epping Forest Council tenants and leaseholders over the next three years.

An initial sum of £200,000 has been earmarked for the upgrading. which will eventually bring digital television to 2,500 properties.

Work will be undertaken to upgrade communal aerial systems, with the residents in the council's sheltered housing schemes the first to benefit.

Tenants and leaseholders of council-owned blocks of flats with old and unreliable communal aerial systems provided by the council are also a priority.

The government's decision to start shutting down analogue transmissions from 2006 means viewers will eventually only be able to watch BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 on digital television.

The upgrade will not mean council tenants and leaseholders can tune into Sky Premier or the sports channels for free. Only the free-to-air channels will be available, unless users pay their own subscription fees for pay-to-view channels.

The council's housing portfolio holder, Stephen Murray, said: "The last thing we want is the current analogue transmission system to be switched off before the communal aerials in our flats and sheltered housing schemes are adapted to the new technology.

"The switch-off date is still a few years away but we need to be planning now to avoid a last-minute rush.

"In the long-term, the upgrade is about much more than television channels."

He added: "Where information on local and central government services is currently available over the internet to a relatively few people with personal computers, in the future millions of people will access services through their interactive digital televisions.

"In years to come, paying your rent, reporting a problem to the council or even voting at election time may be possible from the comfort of your own armchair in front of a digital television."

November 13, 2001 16:31