Amazon Alexa devices could be handed out to Bracknell residents

This idea comes as officers look into developing the voice-activated technology to work with council services.

It is hoped that by providing this service isolated residents will be able to stay connected with friends, family, their community and the world around them.

Could Amazon Alexas be handed out to Bracknell residents?

Bobby Mulheir, a customer services boss at Bracknell Forest Council, told councillors about the work her team was doing at a meeting all about social isolation and loneliness.

She said: “We’re looking into assistive technology. It’s about simplifying technology for people.

“We’re currently developing some Alexa skills around council services, so you could ask your Alexa what’s on at your local library, what can I put in my recycling, when’s my next food waste collection, and she could tell you.

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“[It can also] remind people to talk to somebody. The nice thing about that sort of technology is it’s voice-activated. You don’t need to know how a computer works to be able to get help from that.

“That can keep you really connected with friends and family and the world outside. You can ask it what the weather is like, what’s in the news, what’s on TV tonight.”

Ms Mulheir told councillors about the entertainment value of voice-activated technology too.

She added: “I do think that increasingly, you won’t need to know what YouTube is, you won’t need to know how to type a search into Google.

“You’ll just say to a screen or an Amazon Dot, ‘play me a video of people dancing to Glenn Miller’ and the machine will do that for you.

Could Amazon Alexas be handed out to Bracknell residents?

“You will be able to say ‘I want to take up knitting in my area, is there anything that can help me with that?’ and it will tell you ‘there’s a knit and natter club online’ or ‘there’s a knitting group that meets at your village hall’”.

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The customer services chief was quizzed about the accessibility of such voice-activated technologies and was asked whether Bracknell Forest Council could start to loan out the Amazon devices.

But Ms Mulheir suggested the authority could go one step further.

She continued: “I think not only could we loan out Alexa, I think that probably this technology is becoming so cost-effective, that we could probably say ‘we’re going to give you an Alexa’ to have.

“Probably half the properties in Bracknell Forest already have one.

Could Amazon Alexas be handed out to Bracknell residents?

“Where people don’t have them, I think that from an efficiency point of view, it would be well worth us providing them to some people in the future.”

The discussion around voice-activated technology came at a panel review of social isolation and loneliness in Bracknell Forest held last week.

Councillor Malcolm Tullett, who proposed the review more than a year ago and who led the panel discussion, explained why this issue was being investigated.

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He said: “One of the issues that prompted this is the disconnect between those who say they feel isolated, and the amount of effort, care, work and blood sweat and tears that’s going on in the community right now to address those issues.

“You would have thought we would have had it covered but there’s something still missing.

“Social isolation is an emerging social issue. It’s been getting worse and worse before covid came about, particularly during covid, but it’s not going to go away after we see the end of covid.”

Away from Alexa-based technology, Bobby Mulheir revealed BFC has been offering services including online book groups, online learning and digital skills classes and much more to residents during the pandemic.

And despite admitting she thought the challenge of combatting social isolation was “insurmountable” previously, councillor Mary Temperton said she was “optimistic” the issue could be helped following Ms Mulheir’s presentation.

The meeting took place on Wednesday, February 3.

Two more social isolation reviews are planned to go ahead in the coming weeks before the overview and scrutiny panel reports its finding to the council's top team at the end of the month.