News & Events

Halton Volunteers Thanked For Bringing B4RN To The Village

September 21st, 2021
Author: Mark Gray
Posted In: Latest news

Halton has said “thanks” to volunteers who helped bring B4RN’s world-leading broadband to the village.

Many people living there now have gigabit full fibre connections – and it wouldn’t have happened without local people giving their time over a number of years.

The achievement was marked with a small celebration at Halton Community Centre on Saturday night (18th September 2021).

Local volunteer Robert Thompson said: “The biggest thank you to the B4RN 4 Halton volunteers past and present, the planners, house kit fitters, street reps and alike. Without your help, this would not have been possible. These are people from Halton who have given up their free time to get B4RN here.

“It was five hard years in the planning for the B4RN 4 Halton team, but we are delighted to be able to have such a world-class telecommunications connection available for the village for the first time. B4RN is future-proofing the Halton community and providing residents with the option of unrivalled service, the likes of which we may not have seen for many, many years to come.”

Meanwhile, through the volunteers’ work, the B4RN 4 H4LTON group has raised £10,000 from fees donated for work carried out on behalf of the homeowners. This has been awarded to several village charities and volunteer groups.

The Halton project began life like the majority of B4RN projects, with volunteers banding together on community dig days. In mid-2020 however, it became the first ‘B4RN Village’ project. Even if contractors took up the ‘hard’ build model, the volunteers were still crucial in planning the network, getting homes and gardens ready for fibre, and promoting the project.

It’s often said B4RN is built by the community, for the community. As such, certain community hubs receive B4RN’s 1,000Mbps broadband service for free.

They include St. Wilfrid’s Church in Halton. Church warden Melissa Bowring said: “Thanks to the volunteers for getting us B4RN service for free. We as a church very much appreciate this.

“As you know, as with many organisations, the church has suffered financially through the pandemic, so to receive broadband in this way is really fantastic”