The local goes global

Blair Launches Digital Village

Now - if a local man tells his wife he is popping round to Trimdon Labour Club not for a few pints but to surf for information on the internet - he could be telling the truth.

The Labour club, where some of Mr Blair's most faithful constituents gather, is one of the places in the village where it will be possible to access the Net under the Trimdon 2000 digital village programme.

The other gateways to the information superhighway are the local library and Trimdon Community College where the project, set up with the help of Teesside University and BT which donated £12,000 towards the cost, was launched.

Mr Blair said that although there might be fears technology could lead to people living in isolation from one another, he believed it could enhance the community.

"We do still live in a community where we still share things in common and we still recognise that the stronger our community life the better the lives of the people in it.

Blair: the internet will open up "new avenues"

"This new technology and the Internet has extraordinary potential to open up people's lives ... it is a liberator if we use it correctly."

He added: "Trimdon is a very good place to do this. It is a model for other villages which can use the new technology to give people access to information and let them exchange information. We very much hope we can extend what is happening in Trimdon to many villages."

Mr Blair said Trimdon had been through difficult times because of the end of its former mining industry but new types of work were coming to the area and the Internet and technology were "absolutely vital" to its future.

"We are not going to bring back the old industries but we can create new ones and this is in a small way, a symbol of how we can combine education and technology and make them work together for the people."

The Prime Minister did not respond when the Vice-Chancellor of Teesside University Professor Derek Fraser, in a preceding speech, criticised proposals for students to pay for their tuition fees.

Professor Fraser said the prospect "runs the risk of inhibiting access to higher education rather than encouraging it".

Click Here to go to Trimdon Digital Village