Anne Fleck, Fibre Garden's Managing Director, has submitted our full response to DEFRA's review of our earlier application. This comprehensive bundle of information will hopefully now see a positive response from DEFRA and secure the seed funding grant that we have applied for.

Fibre GarDen was represented on the Sunday Politics Shown by its Chair, Andrew Fleck, who took part in a debate about rural broadband and how communities are further isolated by not being connected to the superfast broadband network.


You can see the discussion by following this link to BBC iPlayer and forwarding to about 44 minutes in.

Fibre Optics Industry Association

John Colton and Mark Jamieson made their presentation to the Fibre Optics Industry Association today in a impressive location. The presentation was well received and further promoted the Fibre GarDen project.

The BBC are filming Andrew Fleck, Chair of Fibre GarDen, on rural broadband provision for the Sunday Politics Show which is broadcast on Sunday on BBC 1 at 11am.

After filming at Garsdale Design and the George and Dragon, Andrew is to take part in a studio debate with Maria Eagle (Lab Transport) and Jake Berry (Cons), please watch if you can!

John Colton, our Technical Director and Mark Jameson are presenting the Fibre GarDen project to the Fibre Optics Industry Association tomorrow in London.

BBC Sunday Politics Show

  Neil Morrow, the producer of the BBC's Sunday Politics Show in the North West has contacted Fibre GarDen today. He is interested in making a film about rural broadband provision.

Westmorland Gazette

John Colton, the Technical Director of Fibre GarDen, is interviewed by the Westmorland Gazette on rural broadband issues which is to appear in the paper later this week. A photograph is being taken today of some of the Fibre GarDen Directors, at Garsdale Village Hall, to accompany the article.

Public Meetings

Public meetings were held recently in Dentdale and Garsdale by Fibre GarDen, the community interest company that is working to bring a superfast fibre optic broadband network to the two dales. Andrew Fleck, the company’s chairman, addressed a total of 111 residents in Dent, Cowgill and Garsdale and explained the benefits of the proposed network and the likely costs of both building it and subscribing to it.

An expression of interest form was given to those present at the meetings and subsequently delivered to every household that had not been represented. Residents were asked if they would be prepared to buy shares in the project, and whether they would want to take the superfast broadband service when it was up and running.

The Cowgill and Garsdale meetings were particularly well attended, and the returns from the expressions of interest considerably exceeded expectations as nearly £200,000 was pledged in contributions.

News from Tim Farron MP

CUMBRIAN MP'S DISAPPOINTMENT AT COUNTY COUNCIL BROADBAND FAILURE
South Lakes MP Tim Farron has expressed his disappointment at the failure of Cumbria County Council to attract a viable bidder to roll out the county's planned super-fast broadband network. It was anticipated that today's County Council cabinet meeting would award the contract to supply superfast broadband across Cumbria to either BT or Fujitsu. Instead the cabinet have decided that neither contract is sufficient and have decided to talk to the bidders further.

Back in the autumn of 2010, the Government announced that Cumbria had been picked as one of four rural pilot areas eligible for a multi-million pound fund to help bring superfast broadband to rural areas. Since then the county council has been going through a tendering and preparatory process to try and award the contract. This was widely expected to have been done today.

However, it is believed that Fujistu submitted an incomplete bid, thus rendering their application void by default and that BT's bid could not deliver the required level of service needed to allow Cumbria to catch up with other parts of the country which already have super-fast broadband.

Tim Farron was a key member of the team that helped secure the original £23.8 million funding from the Government and BDUK to roll out of the broadband scheme. He has previously raised concerns about the project's progress, calling on the County Council to make sure that the broadband rollout project does not become a 'White Elephant' and that Cumbria gets the superfast broadband it needs.

Tim said: "This process has been going on for 18 months now and it's appalling that we've not been able to move any further. Securing the modern infrastructure our county needs should be one of the council's top priorities."

"I want to see the county council supporting community schemes which are ready to be rolled out, such as Fibre Garden in Garsdale and Dentdale. This would help to get things moving whilst we continue to work to bring super-fast broadband to the whole of Cumbria. I am happy to help the county council engage with the Government, to make sure that we can finally make the progress we all want to see."

Board Meeting

A full Board Meeting was held this evening where the main discussion was around our final submission to DEFRA by the 29th June for grant funding, representing 25% of the full project cost.

It was also agreed to engage the services of Berry Smith LLP to provide the project with professional legal advice focusing on company structure, community share issues and wayleaves.

What's Involved

So what is involved in laying a fibre optic cable through our area, will it mean digging wide and deep trenches that will disrupt our lives and spoil the countryside? Well hopefully not, take a look at this video about B4RN who have already started to lay their fibre network.