When the technology works it is great - but it is chaos if it breaks down

We are living in an era of rapid change, much of it being driven by technology. Doing your banking, shopping and accessing information are everyday events that give people more time and make business more efficient (in fact, whilst writing this, I’ve just had a text from my doctor, telling me that from now on, I can book appointments online).

- JOHN WHITBY

Technology is great - until it doesn’t work!

This was brought home to me, very clearly, when I was contacted by residents from the incredibly beautiful village of Parwich.

Staggeringly, they'd been without a functioning phone mast since August. This meant that, as well as not being able to make phone calls, people didn’t receive messages about health appointments, smart meters didn’t work which affected tariffs and even some people's EV charging. Tradespeople lost work and even if people had broadband, they couldn’t receive two step authentication to access services.

Most worrying of all was the residents’ vulnerability when it came to reporting health emergencies.