Category Archives: Broadband

Good, very good news.

We have received a donation of £1000 towards the supply of FTTP to our part of the village via the CFP. This donation has come from a person who wishes to remain anonymous but has given permission to reveal that they live in the part of the village already served by FTTC. WE have thanked them profusely on behalf of the committee and the residents of Eastoft.

There may well be further news on this at a later date; keep on looking.

EBE Committee.

EASTOFT BROADBAND EXTENSION

EASTOFT BROADBAND EXTENSION
MEETING held at Eastoft Village hall 6th March

Many thanks to all those who turned out for an extremely interactive & encouraging meeting last night at the village hall.

Also a big thanks to Cllr Reed for attending & her responses to the many questions posed.

It was disappointing that no member of the Parish Council attended other than Sandra Taylor who is on the EBE committee. With such an important topic one might have thought there would have been an interest shown from one or two who sit on the Parish council, alas this was not to be the case. This will be brought to the attention of the Parish Council, as an agenda point on Monday 12th March meeting.

The meeting was held on behalf of the village to ascertain what the residents views were on the Superfast Broadband options, & what actions the committee could take forward on their behalf.

After many questions wereanswered, mostly around funding, those attending seemed very clear in their conclusions that they would prefer FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) rather than the FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) option, which would leave in excess of 18 residents without some or any improvement in their broadband speed & reliability.

The vote was quite unanimous, with 18 out of 20 attending voting for FTTP. We also know of other residents who have shown interest who could not come for personal reasons.

However, this then begs the question of how to raise the funds for such a project, with a figure in excess of £50,000 needing to be raised.

Cllr Reed expressed the avenues she had already explored, though to date without any positive outcomes. However it was suggested from the floor that we should be able to go back to SSE, & ask the panel who preside over the projects, to consider the bid again, & that we should be able to ask for £30k. Though previously we have been told, this would only be for FTTC. A suitable case is to be presented at the next round of meetings in late April. There is also an additional SSE fund for North Lincs of £170k per annum, which has not supported the Isle much over the past few years, so that is another possible source. There was talk about turning the Hall into an Internet Café, where there may be an option to apply to Awards for All. Also another couple of wind farms adjacent to the area can be contacted.

One of the funding options is to support Lincs Lotto, for every £1 spent, 50p would be donated to the cause. (www.lincslotto.co.uk) Of course there is also the chance of winning a nice monetary prize each week. As we have already registered for Lincslotto just go to their web site & search for Eastoft Broadband. Plus if any residents have any fund raising ideas please let us know, as the more active we are, the more favourable the project will be received.

Those attending last night completed a short questionnaire, asking about their current broadband experience & speed. This questionnaire will be placed online & anyone wishing to add their information will be appreciated. If you let us know your e mail address too we will add you to the directory for future communications.

COMMITTEE Vacancies – we have a committee of 4 persons currently, with one having to stand down owing to personal reasons. This gives us 2 posts vacant for anyone who wishes to offer their time & energy to the project. The committee meet generally on a monthly basis or as & when required. Also meeting with Cllrs & North Lincs from time to time, so it isn’t a great commitment of time, but it would be beneficial to have a full committee to share the tasks that lay ahead.

A final thank you again to all those who voiced their opinions last night, of which there were many, & so encouraging & positive were the outcomes.

EBE Committee

Broadband Meeting

Rescheduled due to Snow

7pm Tuesday March 6th 2018

Further to the meeting on 7th Feb 2018 with Cllr’s Briggs & Reed & Sean Brennan representing N Lincs Council.

Sam Scott the SSE Case Officer for N Lincs Council had accepted the invitation though was unable to attend.

The meeting held was to review the outcome of the bid where the request for FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) was rejected. These reasons have been posted on the Eastoft Community page, however if you have not seen them or do not have access they are as follows:-

  • The panel did not feel that the project met the objectives of the fund.
  • The request for FTTP would involve the area receiving speeds higher than the rest of North Axholme, which would set a precedent for other areas (even those who already receive superfast FTTC) to apply.
  • The panel does not feel that fibre installation, particularly FTTP, is an effective distribution of the funds in regards to befitting the North Axholme Community.

At the meeting EBE were informed that SSE would not fund FTTP, & were recommended to go down the FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) route.

It was suggested a further bid should be proposed at the April meeting. Though this request for FTTC is not guaranteed either as extra funding is likely to be required for whichever route we could have taken.

As EBE act on behalf of the village of Eastoft, the committee felt that it would be appropriate to invite all residents to attend a meeting at the village hall on

7pm Tuesday March 6th 2018

This would allow the residents to give their views on the current situation, & ensure EBE are acting on their preference of choice.

At the initial drop in session 59 residents attended, & it would be most helpful to see a similar number again. This would really ensure that EBE were acting on behalf of those interested in a faster & a more reliable Broadband service in the village.

It would be extremely helpful if you could confirm your attendance by contacting the EBE secretary by either method below.

Geoff Moore – moore4less55@gmail.com
mob 07419 836086

The more present the more likely we will be able to ask someone from N Lincs council to attend.
Refreshments will be available on the evening, we hope you can make it & look forward to seeing you.

 

SSE Rejects outright our application for funds.

Eastoft Broadband Extension update

SSE Rejects outright our application for funds.

After much discussion the application was unanimously rejected by the panel.

The main reasons for the rejection were the panel felt the project did not represent good value for money for almost one third of our annual fund.

Furthermore the request for FTTP would involve the area receiving speeds higher than the rest of North Axholme, which would set a precedent for other areas   (even those who already receive superfast FTTC) applying.

The panel understands that the reason why the government funded NLBB scheme cannot assist is due to the presence of a superfast wireless provider.

Whilst fibre may be the preferred option in the area, the panel acknowledge that there is a superfast option and does not feel that fibre installation (to the premises in particular) would be an effective distribution of the funds in regards to benefitting the North Axholme Community.


Any questions

Any questions can be asked this Saturday at the village hall during the Village Liaison meeting (we will be there) or especially on this

Sunday morning 11-12( ish)

Q&A session where we will be able to give fuller answers.

Please make an effort to come if you can.

Remember we are doing this for the village.

Tony Woodhouse

 

Eastoft Broadband Extension Update

Eastoft Broadband Extension Update

We have now submitted the bid with the assistance of Councillor Reed to SSE for funding towards the Full Fibre,

Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) installation.

Thanks to you all who have responded with your letters of support.
However, if there are any of you that have not yet & would like to write a letter of support then we would be pleased to receive them as soon as possible.

We would require them by no later than the 11th January as they need to be submitted to the SSE Case Officer at least 7 days before the panel meet on the 22nd January.

You don’t have to write a story but we need as many as possible from residents (as well as businesses ) even if just to say we will probably have the service.

Finally, we are looking to organise a Q & A session in the near future probably latish on a Sunday morning for around an hour at the Village Hall where you can ask us that burning question you want answering?

No matter how simple that question may be.
We are looking at the 28th January, 11 o’clock till 12 o’clock with tea and coffee available after (or you could adjourn to the pub ? ).

EBE

Tony Woodhouse

Eastoft Broadband Extension

Further to the meeting yesterday 27/11/2017 with North Lincs Council representatives we would like to bring you up to date on where we are at present.

The Meeting

The committee have indicated a preference for FTTP and also whether the remainder of the village could be upgraded also. Conformation of costing for both FTTC and FTTP have been requested from Openreach to provide either type; there will be a requirement for match funding. Match funding is basically a percentage of the overall costs we would need to provide.

One way would be to introduce a crowd funding option and the committee consider this to be an appropriate method to indicate our intentions to such companies as SSE etc.
We are aware of the extremely poor broadband service in the village and anyone wishing for further details or to provide support please contact me or the secretary.

Contact:
Me: tony@advanced-comms.co.uk Phone 07710502125 Tony Woodhouse
Secretary: moore4less55@gmail.com Phone 07419836086 Geoff Moore

Techy bit explained

FTTC: uses a fibre optic system to the cabinet (the green thing on the High Street) and then uses the old copper cables to reach premises. This impacts on the service to provide a consistent speed and its problems regarding reliability.

FTTP: uses a fibre optic cable to deliver the service from exchange to the property. This negates all service issues when compared to the above FTTC. In other words everything will be new and no longer rely on any of the existing cabling. Bringing the village (and possibly the whole village) into the 21st century.

Timescale.
To meet the grant qualification, we will need to enter our expression of interest/bid before the end of the year. Therefore, any business’s in the area wishing to contribute please contact the above with some urgency. However, should you be aware of any funding streams please don’t hesitate to let us know.

We will attempt to keep you informed and updated with any relevant progress and information.

Tony Woodhouse

Update to Eastoft Superfast Broadband

 

Update to Eastoft Superfast Broadband.

Eastoft Broadband Extension (Community Funded)

We have just had the second meeting with North lincs Council re getting superfast broadband into the rest of the village (we being the committee formed to get things moving and accessing grants etc.)

The meeting was to formalise where we needed to go next with applying for grant funding to meet the cost of getting BT/Openreach to supply the infrastructure (there is no competition in the village unfortunately) and to ask a few questions mostly of a technical nature.
We are looking now to formalise the structure of the committee and take this on as fast as we can to realise our wish for decent broadband speeds for everyone in the village that wants them.
We will know more by the time of our next meeting and will seek to keep you all up to date as much as we can. Please encourage those who you know will not read this that we are working for everyone not just those on facebook.

Any questions please ask an we will try our best to answer but please be aware we are at a very early stage and may not yet have an answer. Either on here or through me will be fine.

102 Properties to Benefit

Broadband Pathway Becomes Clearer

Tony Woodhouse  posted on Facebook

OK  further to this we met councilor Briggs last week. We being Sandra Taylor as a rep of the Parish council and I and had a reasonable time.

We learned that BT was proposing to site a cabinet in the grounds of the exchange for those who do not yet have broadband. They have ‘said’ that they estimate that 102 properties will get in excess of 50 mb downloads and the rest (about 10-15) will get in excess of 24 mb.
These latter will be the ones furthest from the exchange. I am not so sure that this is achievable but as councillor Briggs said ‘Lets get something in for a start’ and we agreed on that principal to go ahead.

This means that we need to constitute a small charity to apply for funding and be within the law. The council can’t help in this matter due to having spent all their allocation of broadband funds so we need a community funded operation.
We need to raise approx £44.500 and the council have agreed to help us with applying for grants etc. from the wind farms via SSE.
So initially I have taken the bull by the horns and asked a couple of people to form the small charity and then do the necessary to apply for funding.

These are Sandra (as above) Geoff Moore (who has experience as a school governor chairman) and Sam (my next door neighbour and myself as technical representative.

So the question is do we need more members or is that sufficient to form the membership? I am happy if someone else wants to take it on as I have no doubt are any of the others or if you are desperate to help.

It will be really simple. We form the charity, we vote to apply for funds from whoever, someone fills in the forms, we get the money and put it into the charity’s bank account and pay it to BT as required.

We also make a contract with BT which will include time limits and penalty clauses etc. to protect the charity from any issues with BT. Once the work is complete we disband the charity forthwith.

So anyone who wishes to be part of the committee could contact me in the first instance then that would be good.

A word of warning though; if it becomes too unwieldy it will only cause problems. Sandra has been asked to ask if any other member of the parish council has any desire to be on the committee.
We need to make a move by the middle of October really to form the small charity so I could do with any nominations at the latest by 1st October.

As above we can constitute with others as required.

Please contact me by email and if you want to mention this to anyone who does not have email or does not come on facebook please do so and you can email on their behalf making it clear who you are doing so for.

Hope this is clear but any questions please ask.

My email is
tony@advanced-comms.co.uk

Broadband Update

Broadband for the rest of the village and how it is progressing.

I have been invited to a meeting with the two North Lincs councillors and others on the 13th September in Scunthorpe to try and get the ball rolling properly with regard to funding.

I am not sure yet what Openreach are proposing but I expect to find out at the above date. I am happy to take any comments desires to the meeting if I get any chance to actually propose anything.

My personal opinion is that we should push for FTTdp/node that will then negate any problems that DO exist on the copper/aluminium cable that is in the ground and also for those who are a long way out.

Openreach could easily treat us as a pilot for the technology which has been around for quite a while now.

If there is any interest I can give you an overview of the technology in laymans terms so you can understand what you would get. The major change would be that you could get rid of your landline and port your number over VoIP and run that down the same fast fibre connection.

This would also avoid having to dig up gardens etc and the final leg of the service would be over the existing overhead which would not affect the actual speed of the service to any extent.

Some of the extra small cost of the fibre service would be recouped by not having to pay as much a £18.95 a quarter for your landline.

That’s just a quick overview.

Please contact me at tony@advanced-comms.co.uk

Please do comment as required.

JOOI I am the big guy who moved in about 2 years ago who is married to Fiona who walks the dog.

Superfast Broadband Drop-In

Re: Superfast Broadband Drop-In

As you may be aware, I, alongside your two local Councillors, have been working on a project with BT which we hope will deliver superfast broadband to the rest of Eastoft.

The Government-funded roll-out of broadband upgraded the green BT cabinet that serves the village to superfast broadband, which has resulted in many now having access. Sadly, much of the village does not benefit from this upgrade as those premises are directly connected to the exchange and do not receive their connection via the green cabinet in the village.

We are now looking at an alternative scheme that could deliver superfast broadband to remaining homes. Sadly, due to EU rules covering the Government-funded roll-out, this funding cannot be used for this. That is why we are working together to establish a ‘community fibre partnership’ with BT to upgrade those premises.

To do this we need the support of local residents who are presently unable to access superfast broadband. We are not asking for any financial commitment, we just need as many of those residents as possible to register an interest.

 

If you live in one of the properties in Eastoft that still cannot access superfast broadband and would like to support this initiative, please pop along to the information session being held on Thursday May 11th in the Village Hall between 4.30pm and 7pm. You will be able to find out more and register your support.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Percy MP

Working Hard for Brigg & Goole and the Isle of Axholme
Constituency Office: 01405 767 969 Westminster Office: 020 7219 7208 Email: andrew.percy.mp@parliament.uk Website: www.andrewpercy.org