Firstly a big thanks to all of you who have responded to the online form. You should have had an email back from us if your response was successfully received. If you want to be included, or you believe you responded but have not had an email, please submit a response through http://rwbb.org.uk/need-it/ or email us via rwbb@googlegroups.com.
As of 20th October we have had the following responses
| Want faster Broadband | Willing to invest in B4RN | Willing to pay BT |
| 62 | 53 | 43 |
BT Openreach solution
We have a 15 week lead time between us submitting a list of interested properties to BT and getting a price back from BT. With this in mind we are looking to get our list of properties together by 15-Nov-2016.
BT Works in Wigglesworth
As some of you may be aware BT Openreach were pulling cable through Wigglesworth in July with manhole fencing saying ‘ Fibre Broadband is here. Order now’. We have checked with Superfast North Yorkshire, who are working with BT and are jointly responsible for the rollout of Fibre Broadband in our area, they have stated that this installation was what is termed a spine cable and whilst this is part of the infrastructure required for faster broadband ‘it will not have an impact on broadband in Wigglesworth’ in the near future. There are still no plans that we are aware of for either Wigglesworth or Rathmell to be included in any Superfast North Yorkshire rollout. In a letter dated 30.06.2016 the Chief Executive of NYNet stated that properties in Wigglesworth were not included in phase 2 of the current rollout which ends in June 2017. The phase 3 contract is likely to be awarded in early 2017 and will run until around 2019. The Chief Executive stated in the same letter that they were unable to say whether properties in Wigglesworth would be included in Phase 3 (which will achieve 95% broadband coverage in North Yorkshire and not 100%). The letter suggested that residents in Wigglesworth may wish to consider the B4RN option.
Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) solution
We will be contacting people who have indicated they would be willing to invest to get an idea of what level of investment they would be prepared to make. This would only be an indication of an amount, and does not require any commitment at this point in time.
If we are confident we can reach a level of investment (without actually taking anyone’s money) which meets B4RN’s threshold they will begin a detailed planning process. That process will be based on the list of interested properties that we provide to them, and they will give back to us their best estimate of what the cost of the project will be. If we decide to proceed with B4RN we would then liaise with landowners on the prospective routes. Alongside this we would also start to gather actual investment to cover the project cost.
If we have sufficient investment in we would be looking to start digging ducting in ~May 2017
Get your interest in early
It is in the best interests of all involved that any properties that might eventually want to get connected to either of the candidate solutions to register their interest as early as possible.
We need to get the list of interested properties to BT Openreach as soon as we can as there is a 15 week lead time for them to come back to us with a price. If a property is not on that list there is no guarantee that the work that BT Openreach would quote for will cover that property and there may be significant delays if we try to add additional properties onto the list at a later stage.
We also need to provide a property list to B4RN to get a detailed costing and adding properties in later may well lead to delays and possibly increased costs to the project which we would want to avoid.
Village Meetings
We are holding meetings in both villages to explore these issues in an open Q&A type forum. We are looking to get attendees from the Lawkland-Eldroth-Wharfe-Feizor-Austwick (LEWFA) B4RN project to share their experience of funding, planning and installing the B4RN broadband solution. The meetings will be a great opportunity to have your questions answered, please do come along and have your say.
The meetings will be as follows and all are welcome – especially those who are undecided:
| Wigglesworth Wigglesworth Community Centre Wednesday 2nd November 7:30pm |
Rathmell Rathmell Reading Room Thursday 3rd November 7:30pm |