Saturday 29 December 2012

What a Year!

What a year it has been for Fibre GarDen, it's Members and helpers, a big thank you to everyone, past and present, who have helped to move the project forward to where it is today.

Some of the biggest steps have been taken in the last month or so having now published our State Aid Notice; our Invitation to Tender will be ready to be published on the 1st February following the end of the Sate Aid Notice period and our Share Offer document is now drafted and ready for scrutiny by our lawyers and accountants before publication.

We secured additional resources for the project by engaging Mark Jameson who has worked on the Invitation to Tender with John Colton, and Tom Woof who is working (even over the seasonal break) with Andrew Fleck; our Land Agents and Garsdale Design on securing all the required wayleave agreements.

We are very grateful for the continuing support from (to name a few):
  • Tim Farron MP
  • Kevin Lancaster
  • Cumbria County Council
  • South Lakeland District Council
  • Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale Neighbourhood Forum
  • Dent Parish Council
  • Garsdale Parish Council
  • Garsdale Design
  • DEFRA
  • BDUK
  • Yorkshire Dales National Park
  • United Utilities
In 2013 we should see all the funding come together and the start of the network build!

Friday 21 December 2012

State Aid Notice

Fibre Garden have now published their required State Aid Notice. This represents a significant milestone in the development of the project. The notice comes into effect from today until the 30th January 2013 to allow extra time over the seasonal break.

The next stage of this part of the project is to publish an Invitation to Tender (ITT) on the 1st February 2013. This is now in the final stages of drafting.

Thursday 20 December 2012

Tom Woof

Tom Woof, who comes from a well known local family, old-Sedberghian and Cambridge law graduate, joins the Fibre Garden Team for the next few months whilst on a gap year to assist the project in securing the required wayleaves in both dales.

Tom's local knowledge will be an extremely valuable addition to our resources, he will be working directly with the Chairman and our land agents during his time with us.

Welcome aboard Tom!

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Potential New Members

Fibre Garden met with several potential new members of the main Board and wider support group last night following the departure of two founder members due to business commitments and personal reasons and one from ill health. An outline of the project to date was given followed, as you would expect, by a wide range of probing questions on various aspects of the project. Much support was forthcoming and a second meeting will be held in early January to confirm appointments.

If you would like to offer some support to the project, however little, then please do get in touch through the contact details on this blog.

Thursday 13 December 2012

BT sign contract for Cumbria

Readers may well be interested in this press release from BT that outlines the intentions of both BT and Cumbria County Council.  Please note that neither Garsdale or Dentdale are in the 93% so the best residents of those two Dales can expect from BT is 2Mb and some of that may well be via satellite. It is also the view of many that the 93% will reduce over the period of the contract due to unforeseen costs and other difficulties. 

Sunday 9 December 2012

Rural Broadband Speeds

Broadband speeds in rural areas are less than half those in the UK's towns and cities, while Omagh in Northern Ireland is the worst connected area for basic broadband coverage, according to analysis of official data.

Note that they are talking about the 'broadband speeds', and hence perhaps only consider the speeds of those who can actually receive broadband to then give the average broadband speed. This is noted in some of the comments below, and actual connection speeds could be significantly slower if non-broadband connections were also included.

Best regards,
John Colton

Thursday 6 December 2012

Stop Taking the Credit

An interesting article in the Computer Weekly, much talk and not much action according to them. It is a long and difficult process but they need to get a move on!
It has been a very busy past couple of weeks in Fibre Garden pushing forward on many fronts. We have reached a milestone in that our State Aide notice is drafted and currently being scrutinised before publication on our website and this blog, to be followed a month later by our Invitation to Tender for the project requirements.

In parallel to this we are working closely with our legal and taxation advisers to be able to publish our share offer early in the New Year. This will then confirm the amount of funding available to meet the building of the fibre network through Garsdale and Dentdale; this time next year it could be in the ground!

If you need any information about the Fibre Garden project please do email admin@fibre-garden.co.uk and or leave comments on this blog as appropriate.

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Connection Speeds

Do you complain about your connection speeds? Take a moment to read this article that sets out just who is complaining to who. No need for such statistics when using fibre!

More Superfast Cities

Note this article from the BBC in which the Chancellor announces ten for cities are to get funding for superfast broadband