9 - Dudley Digi TV at top of the charts

Archived news release from 2007

Dudley Council became one of 75 local authorities in the country to take on Digi TV when its site was launched at the start of October. And the Dudley site has made a quick rise to the top of the charts, being named the second most used Digi TV council site in the latest report from the service provider.

The figures show that in just one week Dudley’s site received 4,609 hits. This was ahead of the likes of Birmingham which was third with 3,065 hits and second only to Leeds City Council’s site which had 5,235.

The free to use site means residents with digital interactive television packages such as Sky and Virgin Media (including Telewest and NTL) can access services 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the interactive button on their remote control.

Through the innovative service people can report things such as litter, potholes, vandalism, bin collections, council housing repairs, abandoned vehicles and street light problems.

And residents will also be able to find out more about the council’s services by requesting benefits leaflets, recycling services, vote forms along with direct debit, blue badge, school register and housing register application forms.

On top of this, people can find out bus and train times, search for jobs and make appointments to visit their GP.

“It is early days for the site in Dudley but it would appear that residents in the borough are using it as much and indeed more than in many other parts of the country. It has certainly had a good early impact and we hope people will continue to use this service to contact us and find out more about what we have to offer.”

Dudley is one of the first authorities in the midlands and the first in the Black Country to take on Digi TV and people can access the Dudley site from anywhere in the country.

The Dudley Digi TV site also includes information on the council’s services in relation to care and caring, jobs and careers, home and housing, leisure and culture, transport and streets, rubbish and recycling, education and learning and community safety.

To access the site people simply need to press the interactive button on their remote controls and follow the interactive services through to local services. Users can fill in their details to request information using the control in the same way as texting from a mobile phone.