Update on the Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group
-------------------------
18th June 2021.
Hello Villagers
The Walesby Better Broadband Team and the Parish Council have now been
working for more than a year with Openreach to get a fibre broadband
connection to Walesby.
Despite many discussions with Lincs County Council; West Lindsey
District Council; the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
(DCMS); the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme; and Openreach, we are still
frustratingly being held up by a few missing emails from the DCMS to
validate a handful of Gigabit vouchers.
Thank you all so much for your patience, we very much hope to provide
you with some good news soon.
The Walesby Better Broadband Team.
-----------------------------
18th June 2021.
Hello Villagers
The Walesby Better Broadband Team and the Parish Council have now been
working for more than a year with Openreach to get a fibre broadband
connection to Walesby.
Despite many discussions with Lincs County Council; West Lindsey
District Council; the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
(DCMS); the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme; and Openreach, we are still
frustratingly being held up by a few missing emails from the DCMS to
validate a handful of Gigabit vouchers.
Thank you all so much for your patience, we very much hope to provide
you with some good news soon.
The Walesby Better Broadband Team.
-----------------------------
4th April 2021
Hello villagers
Just a quick update. Our Better Broadband application is still ongoing.
The Better Broadband Group Steering Committee on behalf of the Walesby
Parish Council has been working since December 2019 to get fibre
broadband to our village using government grants that would supply a
connection at no cost to residents.
During the last five months we have been given many various completion
deadlines that sadly have not been achieved by the other parties.
The latest news is this:
1. Most residents have validated their vouchers with DCMS. Thank you all.
2. Some residents have not yet received their voucher validation email.
3. Some residents are waiting for contact details to be updated,
including those new to the village.
The Broadband team are trying to deal with all of these problems as soon
as we can. Meanwhile we have found out these things:
A. The government scheme that we applied for ended 31st March 2021.
B. This was replaced by a new scheme starting 8th April 2021.
C. Our original scheme and applications have been rolled over into the
new scheme. (THANK GOODNESS!)
D. Due to Covid problems or the Easter Holidays, various officials that
we are dealing with might not be available for a while. Sigh!!
Please bear with us, we will update villagers again as soon as possible.
Meanwhile we hope you all have a good Easter.
The Better Broadband Team
--11th March 2021.
Hello villagers
Just a quick update. Our Better Broadband application is still ongoing.
The Better Broadband Group Steering Committee on behalf of the Walesby
Parish Council has been working since December 2019 to get fibre
broadband to our village using government grants that would supply a
connection at no cost to residents.
During the last five months we have been given many various completion
deadlines that sadly have not been achieved by the other parties.
The latest news is this:
1. Most residents have validated their vouchers with DCMS. Thank you all.
2. Some residents have not yet received their voucher validation email.
3. Some residents are waiting for contact details to be updated,
including those new to the village.
The Broadband team are trying to deal with all of these problems as soon
as we can. Meanwhile we have found out these things:
A. The government scheme that we applied for ended 31st March 2021.
B. This was replaced by a new scheme starting 8th April 2021.
C. Our original scheme and applications have been rolled over into the
new scheme. (THANK GOODNESS!)
D. Due to Covid problems or the Easter Holidays, various officials that
we are dealing with might not be available for a while. Sigh!!
Please bear with us, we will update villagers again as soon as possible.
Meanwhile we hope you all have a good Easter.
The Better Broadband Team
--11th March 2021.
Hello everyone
After almost two and a half years of meetings and negotiations, the big day has finally arrived and we have at last been offered vouchers by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport to install fibre broadband to Walesby at no cost to residents.
All those who registered an interest should have now received an email from from gigabit.vouchers@notifications.service.gov.uk. If you have not received yours, please check your spam box.
The offer says words to the effect that you are agreeing to accept a service from Openreach. PLEASE NOTE: This is the service of providing a fibre connection to Walesby village from the Tealby exchange, it does not mean that you have to change your current internet service provider.
Also, if you registered an interest as a business, this does not mean that you have to take a business contract with your ISP rather than a residential one. Being registered as a business merely means that you are entitled to a higher government grant, your current arrangement will be unchanged.
Importantly, this offer is time limited, so we urge you to respond as soon as possible. The offer has already raised a few queries so if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
The Better Broadband Team are keen to ensure that no-one has missed their offer. Therefore in order to help us keep track of the applications, we would really appreciate it if you could let us know if you have or have not responded. Just email joe@walesbyvillage.uk who will coordinate the information.
Andrew, Jeanette, Joe and Sara
The Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group.
=======================
14th February 2021.
=======================
14th February 2021.
Dear Neighbour
Here is an update from the Better Broadband Steering Group.
Good news! We mentioned previously that we have been able to secure an offer from Openreach to install broadband Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) to 82 properties in the village, paid for by government vouchers.
However we are in a queue and hopefully villagers will receive individual emails from the government Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to confirm our wish to redeem the vouchers that will then pay for the installations at no cost to residents.
Once we have confirmed all the vouchers and the total budget for the project, the Parish Council will be able to sign the Openreach contract and installations will begin. We have been informed that it might take 10-12 months for the installation to be completed from signing the contract.
Also, as a result of a new LCC contract with Quickline, we have been assured that the Walesby properties NOT included in the Openreach FTTP project will be considered for connection within the coming months. Postcodes LN8 3TQ and LN8 3UN on the Market Rasen exchange are invited to register their interest with Quickline as soon as possible using this link:
It will need as many interested residents as possible to make this additional project viable for Quickline so we urge you to look on their website, or via: Onlincolnshire http://www.onlincolnshire.org/.
There will be no cost for a faster broadband connection.
There will be no cost for a faster broadband connection.
We are very aware that this broadband project has been extremely slow to proceed for a variety of reasons. We know that residents have been considering new contracts and may want to discuss options with their service provider in readiness for the upgrade. It has been frustrating for everyone so please let us know of any concerns or changes that we may need to know. Fingers crossed it will all come together soon!
Andrew, Jeanette, Joe and Sara.
========================
17th January 2021.
========================
17th January 2021.
To all parishioners who expressed an interest in the Walesby Better Broadband scheme, please be assured that this is still very much work in progress and the plans are still active.
The Better Broadband Team were promised a result by the end of December but sadly this has not happened.
New meetings with the various authorities and contractors should happen during the next few weeks. In fact there is a meeting scheduled this Wednesday with West Lindsey District Council. Hopefully this might move us forward… but who knows?
We are all working very hard to reach a successful result and we will contact you all again when we have some more news.
Some villagers have expressed a concern that they believe that the government support for Better Broadband ends at the end of March and that we could miss out. We think that hopefully this will not affect us as we are already deep into the system.
We are all keeping our fingers crossed.
The Walesby Better Broadband Team
==================================================
21st November 2020
21st November 2020
Dear Friends and Neighbours
Good news at last!
After several months of negotiation and waiting, the Parish Council has now accepted a revised offer from Openreach to connect Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) to the majority of participating properties on the Tealby exchange. The Rural Gigabit voucher funding will cover the total cost of this revised scheme.
The Parish Council will sign the final contract to start work once the voucher numbers are confirmed with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. This will need your individual agreement to sign up for a 12 month fibre service contract from a provider of your choice when the connection is completed.
We have heard from a number of sources that in most or many cases, the change to fibre might have a zero increase in monthly charges, but that will be between the customers and their supplier.
As a community project, we obviously need everyone who showed their commitment in May to follow through at this stage. Openreach will send each of you an email to accept this condition and we urge you to respond immediately. We have been told the voucher scheme is likely to finish in March 2021 so we must have the contract in place as soon as possible.
We are very excited at the prospect of vastly improved connectivity in the village. We have all made more use of broadband in recent months: working from home, playing online games, watching films and keeping in touch through video calls. How lovely it will be to have better pictures and sound, faster upload/download speeds and no dropout or interruptions
for everyone in the house!
for everyone in the house!
We will keep you updated as always and will answer any questions as needed.
With best wishes
Andrew, Joe, Sara and Jeanette
=======================
12th October 2020.
Dear Residents
=======================
12th October 2020.
Dear Residents
We hope you are keeping safe and well in these continuing unsettled times.
We want to inform you of recent developments regarding our voucher application and the village broadband project.
Last week Onlincolnshire (Lincs County Council) signed a contract with Quickline to complete Phase 3 of the rural broadband upgrade in the county. This contract includes properties with a LN8 3 postcode, so Walesby is within the scope of this project. However, as yet, we have no details of which properties will be included or how the upgrade will be achieved. There are planned meetings in future weeks and we will have close contact for updates through Carl Knight at WLDC.
The Rural Gigabit voucher application and Community Fibre project with Openreach still stands at the moment, but we no longer have a commitment from LCC to fund the shortfall of £50,000 because of this contract. Our contact at Openreach is prepared to look again at the project plans and other funding options in order to secure fibre connection for as many properties within the Tealby exchange as possible.
We therefore now have 2 options to follow through, but each involves a further delay whilst we gather information and clarify the situation. The good news is that it looks like there will definitely be an upgrade of some sort for the majority of the village, possibly before the end of 2021.
Information can be seen on the Onlincolnshire website and at Quickline and we will try to answer any queries.
http://www.onlincolnshire.org
https://www.quickline.co.uk
http://www.onlincolnshire.org
https://www.quickline.co.uk
With best wishes
Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group
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21st August 2020.
==================================
21st August 2020.
To all those villagers who signed up to the Better Broadband scheme and who are anxiously awaiting good news, this is to say – You have not been forgotten!
The Better Broadband team are still beavering away behind the scenes but unfortunately it seems that the glaciers that formed the Lincolnshire Wolds moved more quickly than the system of trying to get Openreach and the various agencies to progress our application.
Thus the news is that there is no news. On top of delays due to Covid-19, we now find that some key personnel are on annual leave.
Our team hope that we will be able to report some signs of progress in our next update. We are still keeping very optimistic.
20 June 2020
A message from the Walesby Better Broadband Steering Group: A latest update about getting fibre broadband to our village.
To all Walesby residents, thank you so much for your support. Working on behalf of the Parish Council, the steering group was set up in October 2019 to try to take advantage of what is called the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme. This offers government subsidies to give rural households and businesses a fibre broadband connection direct to their premises at no cost to the residents. This is known as Fibre to the Premises or FTTP.
For quite a few years prior to that, the Parish Council had been trying to get a fibre connection to the village using a scheme called Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) that would improve our broadband speeds by connecting fibre from the Tealby exchange to a cabinet in Walesby and then using existing copper cables to our houses. The government abandoned this scheme and replaced it with FTTP.
The Better Broadband Group was thus set up with a number of objectives:
1. We had to show that there was good support from residents that showed they wanted and needed a fast fibre service in the village.
2. The physical lines would be installed by Openreach or possibly other companies. We had to get various quotes for the installation and decided to go with Openreach.
3. We were led to believe that Lincolnshire County Council and West Lindsey District Council might be willing to subsidise any additional installation costs as part of their and central government's objectives to ensure that all rural communities would be able to communicate online.
After eight months of negotiating with Openreach and other infrastructure providers, the WLDC, the LCC, contacting residents, getting them to declare an interest and then registering a willingness for them to go forward, we are now at the final hurdle and we hope to reach our objective. Our application to the relevant parties was submitted this week.
What follows is a very brief summary of the results of our surveys:
1. Openreach initially identified around 112 Walesby properties that might be able to get a fibre connection. Some of the properties they listed did not exist and some properties had been missed out, so we ended up with 107 eligible premises.
2. Private residents attract a government grant of £1500 whilst businesses attract £3500. A business category can include full-time businesses, or sole traders who work from home.
3. Walesby has applied for 60 residential grants and 25 business ones. Very, very approximately, Openreach have quoted around £232k to install fibre, the government subsidy should be around £178k, and we hope that the LCC will top-up the shortfall of £54k.
4. The properties that Openreach can currently consider for an upgrade to fibre are all served by the Tealby exchange. We are continuing to seek a solution for those properties that are served by the Market Rasen exchange.
Thus we hope to achieve our objective of getting fast high speed broadband to those villagers who have signed up without them having to incur installation costs.
Thank you once again to all villagers who have participated and apologies to those who might have felt that the Better Broadband Group were sticking their foot in the door. We did mean well!
Our BB Group hope you are all keeping safe. Please feel free to contact any of us - Joe, Jeanette, Andrew or Sara if you have any queries.
To all Walesby residents, thank you so much for your support. Working on behalf of the Parish Council, the steering group was set up in October 2019 to try to take advantage of what is called the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme. This offers government subsidies to give rural households and businesses a fibre broadband connection direct to their premises at no cost to the residents. This is known as Fibre to the Premises or FTTP.
For quite a few years prior to that, the Parish Council had been trying to get a fibre connection to the village using a scheme called Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) that would improve our broadband speeds by connecting fibre from the Tealby exchange to a cabinet in Walesby and then using existing copper cables to our houses. The government abandoned this scheme and replaced it with FTTP.
The Better Broadband Group was thus set up with a number of objectives:
1. We had to show that there was good support from residents that showed they wanted and needed a fast fibre service in the village.
2. The physical lines would be installed by Openreach or possibly other companies. We had to get various quotes for the installation and decided to go with Openreach.
3. We were led to believe that Lincolnshire County Council and West Lindsey District Council might be willing to subsidise any additional installation costs as part of their and central government's objectives to ensure that all rural communities would be able to communicate online.
After eight months of negotiating with Openreach and other infrastructure providers, the WLDC, the LCC, contacting residents, getting them to declare an interest and then registering a willingness for them to go forward, we are now at the final hurdle and we hope to reach our objective. Our application to the relevant parties was submitted this week.
What follows is a very brief summary of the results of our surveys:
1. Openreach initially identified around 112 Walesby properties that might be able to get a fibre connection. Some of the properties they listed did not exist and some properties had been missed out, so we ended up with 107 eligible premises.
2. Private residents attract a government grant of £1500 whilst businesses attract £3500. A business category can include full-time businesses, or sole traders who work from home.
3. Walesby has applied for 60 residential grants and 25 business ones. Very, very approximately, Openreach have quoted around £232k to install fibre, the government subsidy should be around £178k, and we hope that the LCC will top-up the shortfall of £54k.
4. The properties that Openreach can currently consider for an upgrade to fibre are all served by the Tealby exchange. We are continuing to seek a solution for those properties that are served by the Market Rasen exchange.
Thus we hope to achieve our objective of getting fast high speed broadband to those villagers who have signed up without them having to incur installation costs.
Thank you once again to all villagers who have participated and apologies to those who might have felt that the Better Broadband Group were sticking their foot in the door. We did mean well!
Our BB Group hope you are all keeping safe. Please feel free to contact any of us - Joe, Jeanette, Andrew or Sara if you have any queries.