A quick update on the Dargate fibre application: as you saw yesterday we are making brilliant progress to our target of £101,500 to secure this project, reaching £76,500 by close of play on Monday 4th April. A big thanks to everyone who has helped us get this far!
The other good news is that OpenReach confirmed to me earlier that we have an extension beyond the previously communicated deadline of 6th April to get the remainder of our vouchers validated. The 28 day timeframe stated in the DCMS email we all received now applies, so that means a deadline of 27th April to do this by and hit our financial target, which will then be paid to OpenReach to do the build.
A reminder to those who have not validated their vouchers yet that this project will not go ahead unless we can hit the £101,500 target in value of validated vouchers. So if anyone is holding back thinking the project will go ahead anyway and you can jump on and order UltraFast broadband once it’s done, well – if we don’t get the remaining £25,000 in vouchers committed then it won’t happen. That’s 12 more residential vouchers still to go and at least 2 business/sole trader vouchers to get us over the line.
We’ll get another progress report from OpenReach on Friday, but in the meantime if anyone has validated their vouchers since Monday then do email Paul Marsh (click here to send email).
Once again, if anyone is unsure or questioning why they should validate their voucher, or hadn’t previously pledged but now want to support this important community initiative, do contact Paul who will answer any questions.
This is a very exciting development for our village and the updating of the BT infrastructure to enable faster internet.
Currently there are three separate applications in the pipeline:
Dargate, including all residencies in the area from and including Plum Pudding Lane, Dargate Road including the enclave at Belvedere Farm, through Butlers Hill. ending at Summer Lees Farm, including Hernhill Primary School – Lead Michelle Harris Monks Hill area – Lead Kerry Parsons Staplestreet area (around and including ME139HZ) – Lead Christopher Hildyard
All of these applications are hoping to draw upon the funding available from the Rural Gigabit Scheme to update their internet provision.
I spoke with the regional BT manager for Kent. He told me that we had now all missed the deadline to catch the funding which ends on March 31st, as we would have had to have a final offer price by Februay 14th, which none of us did. There is another Government Scheme in the pipeline, to begin in April, but the details of it are not yet known. It is likely to be a similar scheme and the indications are that this region is eligible, and all the applications are still progressing to that end.
Regardless of current speeds, all residences in the distribution point are eligible for the vouchers
The Monks Hill application is still waiting for a provisional offer to give a ball park idea of the cost before a more detailed quote is given known as the ‘final offer’. The Dargate and Staplestreet applications are waiting for the ‘final offer’. Details of the properties included in each application is listed separately below – Staplestreet here; Dargate here.
My understanding is that once the final offer is made, BT will write to every residence that benefits from the scheme (which is governed by the current phone lines’ distribution point). Regardless of current speeds, all residences in the distribution point are eligible for the vouchers. In the case of the Dargate application, this will be fibre to the premises, which will have the capacity to deliver much higher speeds than from the cabinet. Addresses in the distribution point will be provided with information as to how to pledge their vouchers to the application. if a business is registered from the address, in the old scheme, additional funding was available for that residence. Once the required funding level is reached, the pledging process ceases, there is final communication to inform everyone that the target has been reached and then the project is put into the upgrading diary of BT and will be completed within a year.
If you live in the target areas please keep your eyes open for information coming from BT and act on it as quickly as you can; the success of these partnerships depends on each residence in the community pledging their voucher support.
As mentioned in the latest issue of the Hernhill News, the ‘Make Kent Quicker’ campaign to improve the county’s broadband service has been extended; officially due to have finished by now, the campaign is in fact still open, and there’s still time for you to register your vote. As their website declares:
Image: KCC
KCC and the Government have invested 20 million pounds to get Kent faster broadband. HOWEVER, we NEED your votes to show there’s high demand for faster broadband so we can encourage internet providers to invest in Kent.
Make Kent Quicker is a campaign launched and run by Kent County Council.
Our ambition is for 90% of homes and businesses to have superfast broadband access by 2015.
To achieve our ambitions we need to show there’s demand for faster broadband. The greater the demand, the more broadband providers will be prepared to invest in Kent.
Back in May, over 10,000 people had voted, according to KCC website. You can register your vote for faster broadband in Kent by visiting the online page here; and check it out on Facebook here as well.
Please visit the on-line Speed Checker by clicking here, and then posting your result as a comment on the village website here. Hopefully the Parish Council will be motivated to act on the results if feedback shows a poor speed in the local area.
We’ve tested ours: 2126 kps: pretty poor. Over to you…
Hernhill Forum 