========================
30th March 2023.
From David Thurman
Parish Council/BT Openreach Broadband Contract.
We have been informed by BT Openreach that the contract between the council and them is now complete without any cost to the council .
That is excellent news as vouchers claimed covered all of the BT Openreach bill.
That is testament to the hard work put in by the steering group – Jeanette, Andrew, Sara, Joe – for which we all need to give them a tremendous thank you.
David Thurman — Walesby Parish Council
=======================
24th August 2022.
From The Better Broadband Team.
Congratulations to all residents who have successfully connected to the new fibre broadband service in the village.
After your service is up and running, you should receive an email from Gigabit Vouchers (GOV.UK) asking you to confirm that the service is in place and working. It is important to respond to this ASAP as the support grant money cannot be released until the validation information has been received.
When you have validated your connection, could you please let one of the Better Broadband Group know if you haven’t already done so.
When your order has been validated, you can expect to receive another email from Gigabit Vouchers headed “Gigabit voucher scheme – process complete”/”Notice of Grant Aid”. There is nothing for you to do about this but you are advised by them to keep a copy of it for three years!
========================
2nd August 2022
From The Better Broadband Team.
Hello Everyone
For many of us in the village awaiting FTTP, we are very nearly there and the first connections will go live around the 10th or 11th of this month!
Sadly we know that some residents on the more outlying and difficult parts of the village will have to wait a while longer but we hope their wait won’t be too long.
Quite a few of us residents have now signed up with our preferred ISPs (Internet Service Providers) such as BT, EE, etc.
What has become clear is that different deals might be offered by different ISPs, or even by different sales people with the same ISP!
- Some people have been offered their activation fee for free.
- Some have been offered a free pair of fibre compatible (VOIP) phones.
- Some have been offered a free upgrade to a faster package.
- Some have been offered a deal with mobile calls.
- Some of us are staying with our existing ISP.
- Some are moving to different providers.
Furthermore some sales people might try to persuade you to order a faster, more expensive package, and that is of course an individual choice if you choose to do so.
However if it helps to give a personal example, I (Joe) can say that I opted for the cheapest package available, it will give me around 36 Mbps download speed which is 6X faster than I currently have and it should be more than enough for me. I also opted to include telephone calls, but again that was a personal choice.
Thus the Broadband Team highly recommend that you SHOP AROUND if you can for the best deal that will suit you, we all have different requirements.
By the way, once you have taken out your contract, it seems that most providers will allow you to upgrade to a faster package simply by paying the extra monthly cost, but trying to go downwards to a cheaper package would probably be much more difficult.
A number of questions have been asked about what physically happens when the final connections to our homes are made. Here is a link to a website that gives quite a good overview about that and includes some good photos. There might be some details that are not relevant, and of course every house is different, but you might find it useful:
https://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/fttp-full-fibre-broadband-installation
Finally, at the end of this long journey to get FTTP, we know there is now a lot to take in and to consider, so if you do feel that you need a bit of help or clarification about some of the matters raised above, feel free to get in touch with one of the team and we will try to help where we can. However we can’t really advise you about whom you should sign up with, that choice will be down to the individual and what deals you can get.
Best wishes
The Better Broadband Team — Andrew, Jeanette, Joe and Sara
============================
25th July 2022.
From the Better Broadband Team.
Hello everyone
We are very excited to be receiving the first set of emails from Openreach to complete the village fibre broadband project. These are for properties in the core of the village and we expect outlying properties in Risby, on Catskin Lane and Walesby Top to receive theirs a little later.
If you signed up for a voucher with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) then you will receive an email inviting you to ask your chosen Internet provider (ISP) to make the final fibre connection into your home.
You may already have an existing contract which can be upgraded for fibre or you can choose a new provider.
Each ISP may offer different deals which could be a free upgrade, a small connection charge or a small increase in payments to cover the improved Internet service.
The time needed to complete the connection may also vary for different providers.
It is your responsibility to organise the final connection with your ISP. Once you are connected then Openreach can claim the voucher money to pay for all the work.
The cost of the fibre broadband project relies on the vouchers that were agreed with DCMS.
This is a community project so your voucher money contributes to the total cost.
Openreach offer a team of advisors to help you with this final step.
We need you to contact your chosen ISP as soon as possible to make the final connection so that the voucher value can be collected. Please contact one of us if you need further support or clarification.
Good luck everyone and thank you. We are almost there!!
Sara, Andrew, Joe and Jeanette
=====================
18th July 2022.
GOOD NEWS FROM THE BETTER BROADBAND TEAM.
That’s it everyone, the main fibre build is now complete – and nearly 3 months early!!
From early to mid-August, Openreach should be sending out emails to say that you should contact your service provider to arrange to have the final fibre connected from the poles to your homes.
At that time, a check with your ISP (Internet Service Provider e.g. EE, BT etc.) will show that the fibre is available for our postcodes.
Prior to that, checking with your or other ISPs should still show that fibre is not available.
After you receive the Openreach email, our team suggest that you also shop around if possible to ensure that you are getting the best deal.
We are just so delighted and relieved to be finally sending this email out to you all. We are truly nearly there!
Best wishes,
Andrew, Jeanette, Joe and Sara
========================
17th March 2022.
Good news. Openreach have officially confirmed that our DCMS vouchers have now been extended and say that we have ‘no cause for concern’.
=========================
10th March 2022.
Two items:
1) Many of you will have seen five or six Openreach vans parked around the village today with lots of men doing work. I (Joe) sent out the following two WhatsApp messages today.
******
9.30am – I have just had a chat with the Openreach guys. All they are doing at the moment is putting ropes through the ducts ready for cable pulling some time in the future. No live connections nor changes will be made at this time so no disruption. One request from them… No photos please!
******
1.22pm – I’ve just had a chat with the chap in charge of the Openreach ducting work being carried out at the moment. They have virtually finished (but will still be around probably until tomorrow) and for the most part everything looks really good. There will be some ducting to repair/replace at the bottom of Otby Lane around the village hall, but the rest of the village looks fine. The ducting is clear and in good condition, and there is actually some fibre already in the village that can be utilised! New fibre will be put through the rest of the ducting where necessary. Also a couple of telegraph poles will have to be replaced on Walesby Hill.
Individual premises will be connected the same way as the current phone lines, i.e. if you have a telephone cable from a pole to your house, the new fibre will follow the same route.
Once the new ducting and poles are sorted out (which shouldn’t take long) the chap said he expects to flood the area with engineers to get everyone connected ASAP.
Please note that no timescales were promised, but it does look like all this will happen sooner rather than later. Hopefully!
******
2) Articles such as the one below have been appearing in the press:
“Openreach Puts New Fibre Community Partnerships On Hold”
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/03/openreach-puts-new-fibre-community-partnerships-on-hold.html
Please note that none of this applies to our scheme. It refers to new applications, ours is already well advanced.
Also thanks to all the people that signed up for our scheme when they did so, it means that we have not missed out unlike those communities that put the decision off or were not able to reach an agreement.
=========================
2nd March 2022.
We understand that Rural Gigabit voucher holders will receive an automatic email from DCMS saying that their voucher is about to expire. Vouchers expire 12 months after validation and the earliest vouchers in our scheme expire at the end of this month.
Please do not respond to the emails as Openreach have already started the extension process with DCMS to ensure the vouchers remain valid for our project.
======================
28th February 2022.
An email was received from Openreach two days ago which stated:
“Following our email a few weeks ago we thought we’d get back in touch as we near completion of the survey stage, then we’ll soon be releasing work instructions to our contractors to commence the ‘build’ phase.”
It looks like we are making progress so fingers crossed!
========================
7th January 2022.
Happy New Year to all Walesby Newsletter subscribers.
The Walesby Better Broadband team have some good news.
Jeanette has received the following information from the person in Openreach with whom she is liaising.
——————–
Subject: About your community’s fibre build
Hello again
Following my email a few weeks ago about progress with your Community Fibre Partnership I wanted to share more information as we remain on track. The early stages of the fibre delivery process have been completed, our surveyors have checked the blueprints from the design to your community, to make sure that what looks good on paper works in the real world. Our planning and design teams are now progressing with the critical design and survey stage of your fibre delivery / infrastructure and shortly will be building the work instructions for the delivery teams in order to enter the build phase of the programme.
To recap, your new fibre infrastructure will be due to be live around a year from the date of the signed contract.
Kind regards, Wendy Sycamore, Community Liaison Manager
Facebook: fibrecommunity
Twitter: fibrecommunity
www.communityfibre.openreach.co.uk
====================
5th January 2022.
Many villagers might have seen a number of Openreach vans in our village this week. Some of the Better Broadband team have spoken to Openreach employees who have confirmed that they are carrying out a detailed survey of our village prior to installing the FTTP that everyone has been waiting for.
We believe that the survey is going well and that so far no problems have been found that would hinder Walesby getting the high speed broadband that we all want. Maybe we might get it sooner rather than later so fingers are crossed.
Thank you to Sara for the photo of the Openreach happy chap.
=====================================
4th December 2021.
Some premises have received a postal letter this week from Quickline addressed to “The Occupier” implying that they might be able to offer superfast broadband.
Most villagers can ignore this because:
a) Our voucher-funded Openreach scheme is well under way, and
b) If the link in the letter is followed, it says that “We’re not currently planning to come to your area…”
Those residents outside the main village along Moor Road and near the caravan park still have the option of contacting Quickline directly.
====================================
30th November 2021.
A villager has asked the following question:
“I’ve just been reading an article in a magazine describing how all copper cabling supplying landline phones and broadband are being shut down by 2025 and will be replaced by digital fibre optic networks.
It therefore made me think about the plans for Walesby’s new broadband system but I can’t remember what the latest thinking on this was although I seem to remember there had been a recent revision to the programme.
So I thought you were the best person to ask if the latest plans take the 2025 shutdown into account?”
The reply was:
Thank you for your email. You are quite correct that copper lines will be phased out by 2025 and replaced by fibre. This has been known for quite a while so it is surprising that we have had to fight so hard to get our contract with Openreach, but it does mean that we were able to use our vouchers (and get fibre a few years earlier than we might have done!)
Regarding the revision that you mentioned, I sent out a newsletter on 24th September this year which can be seen on our Better Broadband page.
What happened was that the government were initially offering vouchers to install FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) so we started pursuing this. This would have provided fibre to the cabinet in Catskin Lane, then would use existing copper lines to the premises.
However about a year and a half ago (I think) the government replaced this scheme with FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) which is very much better as no copper cabling is used. Thus the Parish Council eventually signed a contract for this.
The only small disadvantage that I can think of about copper being abandoned is that phones will not work during a power cut. The government and Openreach work on the basis that the majority of the country can also use mobile phones. For those that don’t get a good mobile signal (guess who?), battery back-up power supplies are available.
====================
19th November 2021.
A message from Openreach to the Parish Council.
Subject: Your fibre project – keeping in touch
Hello again
We understand you’ll want to keep in touch with your community in connection with your fibre broadband project so we’ve attached a glossary of fibre broadband that you may like to share with them.
We’ve now put requests out for our contractors to commence survey activity. At the survey stage, we take the blueprints from the design to your community, and check that what looks good on paper works in the real world. Our surveyor needs to check that there’s enough space alongside all the existing utilities underground for our new cables, and whether there’s enough space to accommodate the equipment. They’ll also need to determine things like whether any road closures are needed to install fibre and, if so, apply to the local authority for road traffic management, traffic lights etc. They’ll work closely with your local authority as need be, to make sure fibre is installed safely and with the minimum of disruption to local people.
Just so you know, when our engineers conduct the survey they won’t need to contact you about doing it.
We’ll get back in touch within the next couple of months with more information and updates about your community’s fibre build.
With kindest regards
Wendy Sycamore, Community Liaison Manager
(Please note, a glossary wasn’t attached – Joe)
==================
21st October 2021.
Hi everyone
We are delighted to say we have now had confirmation that our contract for FTTP has been received and we hope to have fibre here in the next 12 months. The contract was signed by the Parish Council on 22nd September and we were promised connection within 12 months of the contract being signed.
The following information has come directly from Openreach:
Here are the stages of delivery that we will be working to. Things do go quiet for the first six months but plenty is still going on, so please reassure people not to worry when they don’t suddenly see a flurry of activity in the streets.
Survey – This is where we upload the initial details onto our workforce systems, check capacity in our network and exchange and send out a survey officer to check the physical geography and plan lines up with what we have on our systems. At this stage we can also determine if any traffic management or road closure are required and if so we will need to line up local highways. Once the survey returns are back we move into planning.
Planning is where our engineers will provide a solution based on the survey to give the best speeds possible. They will also order kit and build the whole plan on our systems to create a pipeline of work for our workforce and produce the job packs.
Building of the Network – We will begin work on the civil engineering works which could be anywhere on the network from your local area back to the exchange. The first job is to ‘prove’ any underground network i.e. check the underground ducting for blockages caused by wear and tear or blocked over time with mud and silt. Once we know the underground path is clear we can then begin to install the cable and blow through the fibre optic cable. Once this is complete we will test the fibre network from one end to another to check the community will get the required speeds. We call this ‘light’ testing. Once we get the correct measurements you’ll be glad to know we are almost there and can move onto the final stage of commissioning!
Commissioning is where we complete all final tests and physical audits to ensure everything is compliant. We also amend all our systems to reflect this new work and handover to the service providers so they can also update their systems. Once complete we are ready to go and orders can then be placed for full fibre.
=========================
24th September 2021.
Hello villagers
In November 2019, the Parish Council decided to work to get high speed broadband to our village, and at that time the Better Broadband Steering Group was set up to arrange this.
The aim was to get Walesby connected to the high speed broadband that is available to much of the country. Initially this was going to be Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) but that scheme was dropped and replaced by the better Fibre to the Premises (FTTP).
At long last after two years of very hard work, within the last few days the Parish Council have been able to sign a contract with Openreach to do just that.
It has been a long and complicated journey, the contract has even been amended twice, but it has finally been a success. We will of course keep you updated on when to expect Openreach vans in the village when they start work.
Openreach praised the work done and said it had not seen another scheme with so many in the community willing to pledge.
So it looks like we are nearly there and hopefully we will get the FTTP upgrade in 9 to 10 months which is currently how long start to completion is taking by Openreach. Twelve months is the maximum time that Openreach aims for completion.
By the way, Quickline have been seen working in the area but it is believed that is to do with properties that are connected to the Market Rasen exchange. It does not affect the great majority of Walesby properties that are served from the cabinet in Tealby
Best wishes from the Better Broadband Team.
Andrew, Jeanette, Joe and Sara
======================
18th June 2021.
Hello Villagers
The Walesby Better Broadband Team and the Parish Council have now been working for more than a year with Openreach to get a fibre broadband connection to Walesby.
Despite many discussions with Lincs County Council; West Lindsey District Council; the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme; and Openreach, we are still frustratingly being held up by a few missing emails from the DCMS to validate a handful of Gigabit vouchers.
Thank you all so much for your patience, we very much hope to provide you with some good news soon.
The Walesby Better Broadband Team.
========================
4th April 2021
Hello villagers
Just a quick update. Our Better Broadband application is still ongoing.
The Better Broadband Group Steering Committee on behalf of the Walesby Parish Council has been working since December 2019 to get fibre broadband to our village using government grants that would supply a connection at no cost to residents.
During the last five months we have been given many various completion deadlines that sadly have not been achieved by the other parties.
The latest news is this:
- Most residents have validated their vouchers with DCMS. Thank you all.
- Some residents have not yet received their voucher validation email.
- Some residents are waiting for contact details to be updated, including those new to the village.
The Broadband team are trying to deal with all of these problems as soon as we can. Meanwhile we have found out these things:
A. The government scheme that we applied for ended 31st March 2021.
B. This was replaced by a new scheme starting 8th April 2021.
C. Our original scheme and applications have been rolled over into the new scheme. (THANK GOODNESS!)
D. Due to Covid problems or the Easter Holidays, various officials that we are dealing with might not be available for a while. Sigh!!
Please bear with us, we will update villagers again as soon as possible.
Meanwhile we hope you all have a good Easter.
The Better Broadband Team
=========================
11th March 2021.
Hello everyone
After almost two and a half years of meetings and negotiations, the big day has finally arrived and we have at last been offered vouchers by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport to install fibre broadband to Walesby at no cost to residents.
All those who registered an interest should have now received an email from from gigabit.vouchers@notifications.service.gov.uk. If you have not received yours, please check your spam box.
The offer says words to the effect that you are agreeing to accept a service from Openreach. PLEASE NOTE: This is the service of providing a fibre connection to Walesby village from the Tealby exchange, it does not mean that you have to change your current internet service provider.
Also, if you registered an interest as a business, this does not mean that you have to take a business contract with your ISP rather than a residential one. Being registered as a business merely means that you are entitled to a higher government grant, your current arrangement will be unchanged.
Importantly, this offer is time limited, so we urge you to respond as soon as possible. The offer has already raised a few queries so if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
The Better Broadband Team are keen to ensure that no-one has missed their offer. Therefore in order to help us keep track of the applications, we would really appreciate it if you could let us know if you have or have not responded. Just email joe@walesbyvillage.uk who will coordinate the information.
Andrew, Jeanette, Joe and Sara
The Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group.
=======================
14th February 2021.
Dear Neighbour
Here is an update from the Better Broadband Steering Group.
Good news! We mentioned previously that we have been able to secure an offer from Openreach to install broadband Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) to 82 properties in the village, paid for by government vouchers.
However we are in a queue and hopefully villagers will receive individual emails from the government Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to confirm our wish to redeem the vouchers that will then pay for the installations at no cost to residents.
Once we have confirmed all the vouchers and the total budget for the project, the Parish Council will be able to sign the Openreach contract and installations will begin. We have been informed that it might take 10-12 months for the installation to be completed from signing the contract.
Also, as a result of a new LCC contract with Quickline, we have been assured that the Walesby properties NOT included in the Openreach FTTP project will be considered for connection within the coming months. Postcodes LN8 3TQ and LN8 3UN on the Market Rasen exchange are invited to register their interest with Quickline as soon as possible using this link:
https://www.connectedlincolnshire.co.uk/
It will need as many interested residents as possible to make this additional project viable for Quickline so we urge you to look on their website, or via: Onlincolnshire http://www.onlincolnshire.org/.
There will be no cost for a faster broadband connection.
We are very aware that this broadband project has been extremely slow to proceed for a variety of reasons. We know that residents have been considering new contracts and may want to discuss options with their service provider in readiness for the upgrade. It has been frustrating for everyone so please let us know of any concerns or changes that we may need to know. Fingers crossed it will all come together soon!
Andrew, Jeanette, Joe and Sara.
========================
17th January 2021.
To all parishioners who expressed an interest in the Walesby Better Broadband scheme, please be assured that this is still very much work in progress and the plans are still active.
The Better Broadband Team were promised a result by the end of December but sadly this has not happened.
New meetings with the various authorities and contractors should happen during the next few weeks. In fact there is a meeting scheduled this Wednesday with West Lindsey District Council. Hopefully this might move us forward… but who knows?
We are all working very hard to reach a successful result and we will contact you all again when we have some more news.
Some villagers have expressed a concern that they believe that the government support for Better Broadband ends at the end of March and that we could miss out. We think that hopefully this will not affect us as we are already deep into the system.
We are all keeping our fingers crossed.
The Walesby Better Broadband Team.
===================================
21st November 2020.
Dear Friends and Neighbours
Good news at last!
After several months of negotiation and waiting, the Parish Council has now accepted a revised offer from Openreach to connect Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) to the majority of participating properties on the Tealby exchange. The Rural Gigabit voucher funding will cover the total cost of this revised scheme.
The Parish Council will sign the final contract to start work once the voucher numbers are confirmed with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. This will need your individual agreement to sign up for a 12 month fibre service contract from a provider of your choice when the connection is completed.
We have heard from a number of sources that in most or many cases, the change to fibre might have a zero increase in monthly charges, but that will be between the customers and their supplier.
As a community project, we obviously need everyone who showed their commitment in May to follow through at this stage. Openreach will send each of you an email to accept this condition and we urge you to respond immediately. We have been told the voucher scheme is likely to finish in March 2021 so we must have the contract in place as soon as possible.
We are very excited at the prospect of vastly improved connectivity in the village. We have all made more use of broadband in recent months: working from home, playing online games, watching films and keeping in touch through video calls. How lovely it will be to have better pictures and sound, faster upload/download speeds and no dropout or interruptions
for everyone in the house!
We will keep you updated as always and will answer any questions as needed.
With best wishes
Andrew, Joe, Sara and Jeanette
=======================
12th October 2020.
Dear Residents
We hope you are keeping safe and well in these continuing unsettled times.
We want to inform you of recent developments regarding our voucher application and the village broadband project.
Last week Onlincolnshire (Lincs County Council) signed a contract with Quickline to complete Phase 3 of the rural broadband upgrade in the county. This contract includes properties with a LN8 3 postcode, so Walesby is within the scope of this project. However, as yet, we have no details of which properties will be included or how the upgrade will be achieved. There are planned meetings in future weeks and we will have close contact for updates through Carl Knight at WLDC.
The Rural Gigabit voucher application and Community Fibre project with Openreach still stands at the moment, but we no longer have a commitment from LCC to fund the shortfall of £50,000 because of this contract. Our contact at Openreach is prepared to look again at the project plans and other funding options in order to secure fibre connection for as many properties within the Tealby exchange as possible.
We therefore now have 2 options to follow through, but each involves a further delay whilst we gather information and clarify the situation. The good news is that it looks like there will definitely be an upgrade of some sort for the majority of the village, possibly before the end of 2021.
Information can be seen on the Onlincolnshire website and at Quickline and we will try to answer any queries.
http://www.onlincolnshire.org
https://www.quickline.co.uk
With best wishes
Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group
==================================
21st August 2020.
To all those villagers who signed up to the Better Broadband scheme and who are anxiously awaiting good news, this is to say – You have not been forgotten!
The Better Broadband team are still beavering away behind the scenes but unfortunately it seems that the glaciers that formed the Lincolnshire Wolds moved more quickly than the system of trying to get Openreach and the various agencies to progress our application.
Thus the news is that there is no news. On top of delays due to Covid-19, we now find that some key personnel are on annual leave.
Our team hope that we will be able to report some signs of progress in our next update. We are still keeping very optimistic.
===================================================
17th June 2020.
A message from the Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group: A latest update about getting fibre broadband to our village.
To all Walesby residents, thank you so much for your support. Working on behalf of the Parish Council, the steering group was set up in October 2019 to try to take advantage of what is called the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme. This offers government subsidies to give rural households and businesses a fibre broadband connection direct to their premises at no cost to the residents. This is known as Fibre to the Premises or FTTP.
For quite a few years prior to that, the Parish Council had been trying to get a fibre connection to the village using a scheme called Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) that would improve our broadband speeds by connecting fibre from the Tealby exchange to a cabinet in Walesby and then using existing copper cables to our houses. The government abandoned this scheme and replaced it with FTTP.
The Better Broadband Group was thus set up with a number of objectives:
- We had to show that there was good support from residents that showed they wanted and needed a fast fibre service in the village.
- The physical lines would be installed by Openreach or possibly other companies. We had to get various quotes for the installation and decided to go with Openreach.
- We were led to believe that Lincolnshire County Council and West Lindsey District Council might be willing to subsidise any additional installation costs as part of their and central government’s objectives to ensure that all rural communities would be able to communicate online.
After eight months of negotiating with Openreach and other infrastructure providers, the WLDC, the LCC, contacting residents, getting them to declare an interest and then registering a willingness for them to go forward, we are now at the final hurdle and we hope to reach our objective. Our application to the relevant parties was submitted this week.
What follows is a very brief summary of the results of our surveys:
- Openreach initially identified around 112 Walesby properties that might be able to get a fibre connection. Some of the properties they listed did not exist and some properties had been missed out, so we ended up with 107 eligible premises.
- Private residents attract a government grant of £1500 whilst businesses attract £3500. A business category can include full-time businesses, or sole traders who work from home.
- Walesby has applied for 60 residential grants and 25 business ones. Very, very approximately, Openreach have quoted around £232k to install fibre, the government subsidy should be around £178k, and we hope that the LCC will top-up the shortfall of £54k.
- The properties that Openreach can currently consider for an upgrade to fibre are all served by the Tealby exchange. We are continuing to seek a solution for those properties that are served by the Market Rasen exchange.
Thus we hope to achieve our objective of getting fast high speed broadband to those villagers who have signed up without them having to incur installation costs.
Thank you once again to all villagers who have participated and apologies to those who might have felt that the Better Broadband Group were sticking their foot in the door. We did mean well!
Our BB Group hope you are all keeping safe. Please feel free to contact any of us – Joe, Jeanette, Andrew or Sara if you have any queries.
=======================================
30th March 2020.
Hello everyone.
Although there have not been any recent updates about our efforts to ensure that Walesby becomes connected to the outside world via fibre broadband, a great deal of work has been going on continually behind the scenes. A very brief update is this:
- Using grants from the Rural Gigabit Scheme, and with support from the Lincolnshire County Council and the West Lindsey District Council, our aim was to have a fibre broadband connection to Walesby installed at no cost to residents.
- Openreach were approached to give us a quote and they did so. Their quote was in excess of the grant that the government’s Rural Gigabit Scheme would give us but we hoped that LCC and/or WLDC would make up the difference. HOWEVER…. although the Walesby properties served by the Tealby exchange might be viable, the Walesby properties served by the Market Rasen exchange (mainly those along Moor Road and Rasen Road outside the main village) were horrendously expensive.
- The aim of the Parish Council and the Walesby Better Broadband Group is to obtain a very good internet connection for as many parishioners as is practically possible.
- Thus team members of another supplier called Quantum were invited to give us a quote, and they attended the recent Parish Council meeting to outline their strategy. Their plan is to initially provide FTTP (Full Fibre To The Premises) for the bulk of the village, and then take a wireless signal from the village to the Moor Road properties; these properties might possibly be upgraded to fibre later.
- Thus the Better Broadband team are awaiting new costings. It was planned to have a village meeting to explain all this but recent coronavirus problems means this is no longer possible!!!
- Conclusion: The hard work is still going on and the Better Broadband Group will do their best to keep residents up-to-date with latest developments. If anyone has any queries or concerns, please contact the Parish Council via walesbypc@outlook.com or the Walesby website via joe@walesbyvillage.uk
===================================================
13th January 2020.
The online application to Openreach for Fibre Broadband to be installed to the Parish of Walesby was submitted by the Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group on 4th December 2019.
A reply was received from Openreach on 31st December 2019 with an offer for the project.
With the estimated total we hope to receive from the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme to pay for the project, we expect there to be a shortfall of about £50,000 – £70,000 but Carl Knight (WLDC) was confident that the shortfall funding would come from the LCC onlincolnshire project (Steven Brookes).
In the offer from Openreach, some properties had been omitted as they are on the Market Rasen Exchange, rather than the Tealby Exchange. However, it was agreed by the Parish Council at their meeting on 13th Jan 2020, that the WBB Steering group would now make a second application to Openreach for those properties so that they can be included in a 2nd project .
The Steering group have also replied to Openreach asking if they can go to the next stage of having an infrastructure survey done.
Once the infrastructure survey has been done and the costs for the project have been agreed the WBB steering group will ask Openreach to attend an open meeting for all residents at the Village Hall to discuss the next steps of signing contracts and starting the project
Many thanks for all your support.
The Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group
======================================
9th December 2019.
We are delighted to announce that the “Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group” have now completed Stage 1 – with an application of interest sent to the “Openreach Community Fibre Team” on Wednesday 4th December. 98 addresses were submitted (1 Charity, 25 Businesses and 72 Residential).
Stage 2 will be to hold our 3rd village meeting, this time with Openreach there to explain our next steps. We expect to hear back from Openreach about our application within 15 days, so we are anticipating holding the meeting in early January 2020.
Many thanks for all your support – we hope 2020 will bring us good news!!
Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group.
=================================
11th November 2019
At the Parish Council meeting, setting up the Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group was officially agreed.
The members are Jeanette Ashton, Joe Magrin, Andrew Morris and Sara Sprague.
==================================
15th October 2019.
From Walesby Parish Council.
Thank you to all residents who attended the broadband meeting on Thursday 10th and who signed up for the Rural Gigabit community voucher scheme. We hope to collect more signatures in order to proceed with the project and will keep residents updated of further developments.
Remember, there is no cost involved for connection and we are not committed to anything until we have had a village survey.
=======================================
Tuesday 13th November 2018
From David Thurman, Parish Council.
Broadband Survey.
We are hoping to collate the results of the survey at the end of 2 weeks, if you haven’t already done so could you please send your completed surveys to us by the 26th November. The results already look interesting. Thanks.
========================================
Wednesday 7th November 2018
From David Thurman, Parish Council.
Good news – I have just had confirmation from Stephen Brookes of ONUK that Walesby is included in phase 3 of the BDUK roll out of broadband upgrade. A supplier will be appointed towards the end of March 2019.
I think it would still be useful for people to complete the survey of broadband that the Parish Council sent out, as implementation of phase 3 could still be a way off.