New Deal computer give away

Dear Messenger,

I would like to thank New Deal for the computers they handed out. The fact that lots of people never got one really riles me. I went down to Sorby House on Monday at 9am sharp. However on arriving at the door there were numerous people outside. A list of names was being read out. To my surprise only 35 people were allowed into the building. There were apparently only 21 computers to give away. It was embarrassing being left outside. Is it not obvious to the organisers that more than 21 people live in Burngreave? And come on, did they really think exactly 21 people would turn up? The whole thing was organised badly. For starters it seemed that it was mainly males that walked off with a computer. Could this be because women had to drop off kids to schools before getting to the Vestry Hall? I thought that the building was open at nine o'clock not earlier, but names were already taken down on a list, so not many people had a chance anyway. A lot of people were very, very disappointed. Good luck to those that actually got one. And very, very bad luck to those that really needed one and were turned away.

Diane Johnson Fox street Burngreave.

BNDFC responds:

We did consider the best way to dispose of the computers and after consideration it was agreed that a 'first come first served approach' would be the most equitable method of disposal and this was clearly outlined in the Messenger advert.

On the day of the disposal the people began to queue from 4:30 am and at 9:00 am we decided to commence the process of checking eligibility with the first batch of applicants being taken in, to allow Sorby House to function as an office building and to prevent people waiting for a computer if they had all been allocated.

We tried to keep those who were waiting at Sorby House informed of the situation about timing, number of computers andeligibility requirements. We never envisaged the level of response that we received, all of the surplus computers from the organisation were allocated for disposal to the community, we could have given them away three times over.

From our records the allocation of computers was 55% to males, 45% to females.

We appreciate that a great number of people were disappointed not to be allocated a computer and would have liked to be able to give more away but we simply did not have the numbers required.