News archive: Latest News
November 29th, 2011
Author: Chris Conder
Tags: community mappers routes shares
Posted In: Archive News
February
January
Route mapping meetings, route walkers enlisted, shares coming in very well, on target to be digging in Spring when the fields dry up.
December 15th
The launch event went very well, with support from USA and Europe, see the news page
November 14th
The team met at the end of October and decided to proceed with the share issue, this will be announced shortly once it has cleared through the HMRC checks and processes.
October 10th 2011
The B4RN management team met last Friday night in Wray to discuss how the project has progressed
Registration is progressing well and the additional efforts of the various “village champions” were now achieving good results. Current registrations are 443 against our target of 662 (see beanstalk on www.b4rn.org.uk for updates)
Based on the positive reaction from the community, we agreed that the project should now move to the funding stage. Working teams have been organised to bring together the various items still required to allow a share prospectus to be finalised, printed and sent out to all parties. This is a major step forward.
NEWSFLASH 27/09/11: The beginning of October was a self-imposed deadline by the Management Committee. It is not set in stone, and this is a community project running to the timetable of our community. It has taken some time for people to understand what is being proposed, but it is obvious from the increasing number of sign ups (30 yesterday alone and 17 more today even before the Wray meeting) that the ball has now started rolling. On 7th October, a decision will be made by the Committee about extending the deadline for registrations of interest.HORNBY: The route from Melling has now been extended to come down into the top end of Hornby, which means that any properties from Deer Park Lane to the top of the village are now included in Phase 1. Please help in getting support from all of these properties, using one of ourposters, by knocking on doors, talking about the project to your friends, family and neighbours, etc.
By October we will need to have an idea of how many of the local community in the Phase 1 area (please see the maps) wish to take a service and/or to take shares. So, please register an interest and make sure all of your friends, family and neighbours are aware of the project, and actively considering involvement.
Check the Press Coverage page for media articles, blog posts and press interest in the project.
Open letters of support have been received by the project and are always very welcome.
Having completed our most recent round of meetings, we are now heading into the crucial period of needing everyone who is interested in next generation rural broadband to register their interest. Please complete the registration form to express an interest
The key facts about this fibre optic network:-
- It will be a high quality, state of the art, 1Gbps (1000Mbps) future proofed solution, owned and operated by the community.
- 100% coverage – nobody left out.
- Cost – £150 connection fee, then £30 per month (including VAT) Plus the ability to operate a phone service via the network thus saving £14.60 per month in line rental to BT! Existing landline numbers can be kept.
B4RN is a community benefit society registered with the Financial Services Authority under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 – it is similar to a cooperative – the assets are locked down and the benefits of the scheme will be preserved for the benefit of the community and for future generations.
Lancashire County Council has a project to address the issues of poor broadband in rural areas and has secured £30m of public funding. However, this will most likely be spent on upgrading mainly urban “rural” areas to BT’s superfast broadband product rather than tackling the problems of the really rural areas with fibre optics. Properties in the B4RN parishes will still be left in the slow lane with only basic 2Mb broadband, wireless or unsatisfactory satellite links.
Archived News:
September
Update:
The meeting at Wray was a great success!
NEXT MEETING: The final presentation of the project is at Wray Institute on Tuesday September 27th at 7pm.Everyone is welcome to attend and to see their properties on the Google Earth B4RN map and network plan. Wray Institute is the only venue with broadband of sufficient capacity to display this information. Refreshments will be served, so please tell your friends and neighbours about it and any questions they have will be answered.
Wennington, Arkholme, Quernmore, Over Wyresdale, Melling and the young farmers’ meetings went down well. There are photos from the meetings here.
September sees the start of the parish parties, events put on by the parish councils or communities to inform the residents and answer questions. Details are on the getting involved page. The fliers have been delivered to all the homes in the 8 parishes, and lots of support is being registered. The Lancaster Guardian, Farmers Guardian and Radio Lancashire have also run articles on B4RN. (see the press coverage page)
August 2011
News of the project is beginning to spread around the area with B4RN presentations having been made at Quernmore, Wray, Wennington, Tatham, Arkholme and Melling, as well as announcements being made in parish and village newsletters and websites.
During the next few weeks, the first flier will be delivered to each of the properties in the Phase 1 area. During the first two weeks of September, further presentations will be made at Parish Council community presentation meetings – details of all these meetings will be available in your Parish and on village noticeboards.
Lancashire County Council is hosting a public meeting and workshop on Wednesday August 8th at Hornby Institute starting at 5.30pm and has invited BT and Commendium (the two short-listed bidders for a regional project) to attend. Local people are invited to hear more about the project, discuss the issues, and put forward their own views. This meeting is NOT associated with the B4RN project. (Update: BT again re-affirmed that superfast broadband would not be delivered in 10% of the country, which meant it won’t be coming our way)
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