Broken aerial keeps older Daubhill residents from watching television

They share a communal aerial that has been broken for a two-story block of flats and neighbouring houses, leaving them unable to watch television.

Bill Ingham, 69, said: “It gets loads of glitches, the picture breaks up and then it goes off and says there’s no signal.

“I’m not a telly addict, but I like it on in the morning.

“It's driving me mad. There’s nothing worse than watching half of the football match and it goes off, it does your head in.”

Bill lives in Georgina Court’s two-story house.

His neighbour Lilian Farrington, 90, found out that television didn’t work throughout the building.

Lilian said: “At first, I thought it was just my telly going off, but then everybody else’s started to.

“You put the television on in the morning and it’s alright for five, maybe ten minutes then it starts cracking up and going blank or blue.

Bill Ingham and Lilian Farrington (Image: Newsquest)

“Sometimes I get a big banging noise.”

Most of the residents are elderly and have had no other option for television.

Bill said: “People who have [streaming] can watch through the internet.

“I don’t have internet. I rely on the communal aerial.”

Over three months, they have tried contacting their housing provider, The Guinness Partnership, to fix it and received the same response.

Lilian said: “They say they have to wait [for two months] for the scaffolding to come.

“There are millions of people who install it in Bolton. There’s some in the garden here, and they say they can’t find it.”

Bill tried to find a solution by buying two plug-in aerials.

He said: “At night it blocks their signal because Winter Hill is the other way.

“I tried asking if I could put up my own aerial, and [The Guinness Partnership] said I would have to apply for planning permission.”

Sharon Grimes, 60, lives in a neighbouring house. Her television does not work either.

She said: “Everybody’s reported it. Next door’s just had their roof done with scaffolding and had it taken off, but we can’t have scaffolding, forget an aerial.

“We have a second telly with its own aerial but quite a few of the elderly people here don’t and not been able to watch.”

(Image: Newsquest)

A spokesperson from The Guinness Partnership said: “We are sorry that our residents have been experiencing a problem with the communal aerial.

“There has been a delay with our contractor, and we are waiting for them to erect the scaffolding. 

"However, we expect the necessary repair to be completed very soon. 

“We apologise to our residents for the delay.”