Project summary
The village of Brampton is a former
pit village exhibiting multiple deprivation
characteristics. Unemployment is more
than twice the national rate and there
are high levels of long term unemployment.
Residents suffer from high rates of
ill-health with 17% having a long-term
illness and 28% defining themselves
as disabled. Mortality rates are high
and a high proportion of residents
of working age are permanently sick.
There is a high level of dependence
on benefits and levels of literacy
and numeracy are low.
The Brampton area has 1,500 homes,
of which around 1,200 were deemed
to be in the project catchment area.
A consortium including Rotherham Metropolitan
Borough Council, Granada Media, Employment
Service and On Digital (later to become
ITV Digital), developed the bid for
Wired Up Communities funding. It was
submitted to the DfES in November
2000 and the local project developed
under the name 'Pit2net'.
Representatives from the consortium
played a key role in establishing
a steering group to oversee the implementation
of the project. The steering group
met regularly to discuss developments
and review progress and was chaired
by a representative from RMBC, which
became the accountable body for the
project. A local community forum of
8 to 10 local people also provided
input.
A project manager was initially seconded
from RMBC to manage the implementation
of the project and the project also
employed a web content manager and
a small team of ILM workers. The project
was based on a digital TV set top
box platform that was readily available
to consumers, but with a specific
focus on the use of net top boxes
for internet access. Over 600 set
top boxes with net top boxes were
distributed to residents, but the
project ran into difficulties with
the financial collapse of its major
partner, ITV Digital, in the summer
of 2002.
From August 2002, the project changed
its focus to pcs with 56k modem access
and engaged a project manager on secondment
from Phoenix
Enterprises to oversee the roll
out of over 300 new pcs. Over the
same period, a DfES funded consultant
worked closely with the project to
develop a business plan for Com2Net,
a new social enterprise that has taken
over the day to day management of
the Pit2Net project from April 2003.
With ESF and SRB6 funding, Com2Net
is looking to roll the pc based WuC
model of pc, software, ICT training,
home/school links, technical support,
community portal and online services
into six deprived communities across
Rotherham starting with Brampton/West
Melton. Working with RMBC, Com2Net
will also explore the opportunities
for absorbing and recycling the redundant
computer stock from RMBC and its commercial
partner, BT.
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