THOUSANDS of council tenants will be forced to pay for digital TV to be installed in their homes even if they have already paid for their own kit.

And hundreds of unauthorised satellite dishes and TV aerials will be stripped from the side of housing blocks.

Housing bosses want to make sure TVs in council homes don’t go blank when traditional analogue signals are switched off in 2012.

But they are already facing an angry backlash from residents who claim they were not consulted and don’t want or need to be upgraded.

The council handed a lucrative £2.3m contract to Firstline Digital to install new communal aerials and satellite dishes so that every home to will be able to get Freeview channels or subscribe to Sky or other channels.

One new TV socket will be fitted into every home.

More than 12,000 council tenants face an annual £21.60 charge to pay for the citywide installation scheme.

Elderly residents of Cameron Court in Lordshill, Southampton, one of the first blocks set to be upgraded, have collected a petition in protest.

Molly Coffen, 71, a former checkout girl, spent £200 on a new aerial and Freeview box which she said she “won’t be able to use” and was told she will have to pay an extra £70 for a additional socket in her bedroom for a new TV.

“Why didn’t they do this years ago? It makes me so angry to think they can just do this. How can they impose something on us we don’t want or require?”

Ward councillor Don Thomas said: “For an administration who likes to talk about choices where is the choice in this?”

Nearly two thousand leaseholders of council properties are also being billed £189 each for the work even if they refuse to have it done.

One landlord, Robin Pearce, 55, said: “My tenant watches digital TV using a Freeview box which works perfectly well with the signal from the existing communal roof aerial, yet the council which owns the freehold is still insisting we leaseholders pay £190 each for a new aerial system.”

He added: “It’s ridiculous to have a blanket approach when most don’t even need to have an upgrade. It’s extremely dictatorial.”

The council insists it had no choice but to upgrade the communal TV in its properties so it was “not appropriate to hold a block by block ballot”.

In an email to one disgruntled leaseholder a housing officer confirmed: “All dishes will be removed when a new dish is put on the top of the block – but you have the right to refuse entry to have the equipment fitted. You will still be charged your proportion of the block cost though.”

Most council tenants already get their TV through a cable system now run by Hampshire-based Virgin Media, formerly NTL, but many complained about poor service and limited channels.

Digital UK, the not-for-profit firm leading the switchover, said local authorities needed timely action plans for properties dependant on communal TV, which may include upgrades, but said it was crucial tenants were consulted.

Southampton City Council consulted tenants two years ago on the type of upgrade system they preferred but not whether they wanted it.

Two thirds of those who returned forms said they preferred the satellite and aerial digital TV option.

Testway Housing, which took on 6,000 houses from Test Valley Borough Council a decade ago, upgraded a minority of its properties five years ago. The majority of its tenants were left to decide how they should prepare for the digital switchover.

Council response

SOUTHAMPTON City Council’s new Cabinet member for housing Councillor Peter Baillie, said council had thousands of properties which will be affected by the digital switch over in 2012.

He said: “As a responsible landlord the council is providing its tenants with a cheap and convenient way to get a digital signal when the analogue signal is switched off in two years leaving them with no TV signal at all.

“There has been considerable consultation but in this case it’s not possible to provide this [upgrade] on an individual tenant basis.

If it’s not done now it will be an unfair and expensive burden on subsequent tenants.”

He added the council would be flexible about tenants who had put up satellite dishes with planning permission but others would be removed and handed back.