General Update

The Fibre Garden team are still hard at it bringing various aspects of the project together, a significant milestone will shortly be reached.

The formation of the legal entity for the project is nearing completion following many many discussions with lawyers and accountants to get this right both for the community and potential investors and to ensure that we comply with all the rules and regulations, especially to qualify for an Enterprise Investment Scheme. Thanks must be given to those on the team with expertise in this area and who have guided the rest of us through the process. It is our aim to share our experience with other communities as appropriate.

Having formed and registered the legal entity this then permits us to finalise the Share Offer, which was planned to be launched at the beginning of this month. The offer document is written and is going through its final scrutiny before being launched through an appropriate marketing event. Further announcements will be made on this blog.

Our technical team members are also in the final stage of evaluating the many tenders that have been submitted for building the fibre network through both Dales. This is a huge task, ensuring that we have the right solution in place using the right technology at the right price with the right partner! Then there is all the contract law to be looked at.

Funding is in place from DEFRA who are currently looking at the possibility of increasing our intervention rate, we have submitted a new grant application to YDNP to assist with initial overheads and we are currently in the submission and appraisal stage of some further Venture Capital funding. However, the project still needs a great deal of financial support from the communities of Garsdale and Dentdale through the Share Offer that will enable the pledges already made and any new ones to be formalised. Without this support the project will not be able to proceed.

Further updates will be published shortly but if you have any specific queries please do contact us.