@fibregarden

We have now launched the @fibregarden account on twitter, which already has a number of followers. Make sure you check it out and follow as well!

Tax Advisers Appointed

Fibre GarDen is pleased to announce the appointment of Tait Walker Chartered Accountants as our tax advisers to guide us through the process of seeking approval for an Enterprise Investment Scheme and then to be available for further advice and support through the Share Offer period and beyond.

Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, they have previously worked with Muckle LLP who we have also recently appointed. The two appointments now provide the professional support needed to ensure the robustness of the project and to give reassurance to potential investors.

Fibre GarDen Forges Forward

Fibre GarDen, the community interest company which has been set up to build a fibre-optic network to every property in Garsdale and Dentdale, has moved several steps closer to bringing super-fast broadband to the communities.

In January the Fibre GarDen board was joined by Adrian Gordon and Tony Robinson. Adrian brings experience of developing internet based services to the project and

Tony works in mobile telephony software.

The New Year also brought excellent news in the form of another successful grant application which follows DEFRA's commitment to provide £157,500 to the project. Now, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has demonstrated support for the project through a grant of £14,900 from its Sustainable Development Fund. This grant enables Fibre GarDen to secure the legal advice it needs to present a share prospectus to the community as the second phase of our fundraising. That advice will be provided by the Newcastle law firm Muckle LLP who won the award for Regional Law Firm of the Year, 2012. We are grateful to Muckle LLP who will provide some of the advice free of charge. We anticipate that we will be bringing the share prospectus to the communities in April.

A different part of the ongoing work is the detailed mapping of the network route. In this, we have received a lot of support from Garsdale Design who have provided us with mapping software. Tom Woof, who lives at Greenwood Haw Farm, is working along the dales to confirm land ownership along the proposed network route. Once he has done so, we will approach landowners to secure permission to build the network.

Simultaneously, we have published our State Aid Notice for the required duration of 30 days with no challenges and are on the point of issuing our Invitation To Tender (ITT) to suppliers of materials and services.

We are also fortunate to have secured significant support from YDNP who are providing us with advice about land designations such as protected verges, common-land and stewardship. This will enable us to design the route to minimise environmental impact and simplify planning issues. We are delighted that YDNP has embraced the project so whole-heartedly and are grateful for their support.

2013 will be a big year for Fibre GarDen and we look forward to bringing you more news in the coming months.

Andrew Fleck - Chairman

Grant sucess!

We received confirmation yesterday that our application to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Sustainable Development Fund for help with the project start up costs had been successful! 

The application was well supported by YDNP members who have also asked that we produce a Case Study report for circulation to other  applicants who are seeking to achieve similar objectives. YDNP are also assisting us with meeting some of the many regulations and required permissions as well as working with other agencies.

This new funding is very welcome at a time when we need to secure additional resources and professional advice for the various aspects of the project.

VOTE TODAY!

Dear Cumbrian Residents,

Today is the last chance for you to help make a difference - PLEASE - Place your vote for John Colton on the website here as follows http://www.talktalk.co.uk/digitalheroes/vote-map.php

Support for the superfast broadband efforts of the residents of Dentdale and Garsdale has been coming from all quarters. The community should be proud of what has been achieved to date and the recognition that has been given in the local and national press and at the highest levels of government with the announcement of our grant award by the DEFRA Secretary of State Rt Hon Owen Patterson MP when he visited Garsdale in September 2012. We still have much to do and many challenges to overcome, but our community spirit has never been higher.

Tim Farron MP has been especially helpful by nominating John Colton, Technical Director of our community not for profit company Fibre Garden for the Talk Talk Digital Heroes Awards and encouraging people to vote for John. There is the chance that we can win a £5,000 contribution to our general funds for the FTTH rollout. We need your support.

LAST CHANCE - VOTING CLOSES Sunday 18^th November 2012

A VOTE FOR SOUTH LAKELAND AND CUMBRIA SUPPORT YOUR DIGITAL HERO

TALK TALK DIGITAL HEROES AWARDS 2012

NORTH WEST REGION FINALIST – JOHN COLTON

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, FIBRE GARDEN

Resident of Garsdale, Cumbria and Fibre Garden’s Technical Director, John Colton has been nominated as North West Region Finalist for the Talk Talk Digital Heroes Awards 2012.

Talk Talk, in association with Citizens Online and the Mirror Newspaper Group, for the fifth year running have sponsored the Awards celebrating inspirational people who use digital technology to benefit their community. The winner is decided by a public vote with an awards ceremony at the House of Commons in London.

A VOTE FOR SOUTH LAKELAND AND CUMBRIA SUPPORT YOUR DIGITAL HERO

TALK TALK DIGITAL HEROES AWARDS 2012

NORTH WEST REGION FINALIST – JOHN COLTON

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, FIBRE GARDEN

Resident of Garsdale, Cumbria and Fibre Garden’s Technical Director, John Colton has been nominated as North West Region Finalist for the Talk Talk Digital Heroes Awards 2012.

Talk Talk, in association with Citizens Online and the Mirror Newspaper Group, for the fifth year running have sponsored the Awards celebrating inspirational people who use digital technology to benefit their community. The winner is decided by a public vote with an awards ceremony at the House of Commons in London.

Voting for the winner has now opened and South Lakeland and Cumbrian residents are encouraged to support your local “Digital Hero”. The relevant website to voteis here

ACT QUICKLY - VOTING CLOSES 18^th November 2012
Full Press release here...

TalkTalk Digital Heroes Awards

Tim Farron MP recommends Fibre GarDen for the TalkTalk Digital Heroes Awards 

The TalkTalk Digital Heroes Awards, with Citizens Online, is the UK’s only competition recognising people who harness digital technology to bring about positive social change in their communities.

Now in its fifth year, the awards, in association with Citizens Online and The Mirror - and supported by Go ON UK - offer people a chance to win funding for a new or existing digital projects.

Twelve projects from around the country will be awarded a £5,000 grant, with one overall winner getting £10,000. And this year we launch a new category for children and young people aged up to 18 years, with the Young Digital Hero receiving £4,000 for their chosen charity and an Apple MacBook Air.

It's decided by a public vote, with an awards ceremony at the House of Commons in London. 

“WIRED DALES” FIT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

The dawn of an exciting new era is launched today with the visit by the Secretary of State for DEFRA, Owen Patterson MP and his announcement that Fibre Garden, the not for profit community broadband company for Garsdale and Dentdale, are to be the first Rural Broadband pilot in Cumbria to receive a £157,500 DEFRA grant under the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) scheme.

Fibre Garden’s team of volunteer Directors, empowered by their respective Parish Councils, has been working with DEFRA, Broadband UK (BDUK), Cumbria County Council and Tim Farron MP for the last two years. Securing this key funding enables the delivery of a fully inclusive, future-proofed fibre to the home (FTTH) superfast broadband network to every household in Garsdale and Dentdale. 

This landmark pilot scheme will offer service speeds of 40 Mbps and 100 Mbps, enabling the most advanced business, education, media, healthcare, tourism and agricultural usage and applications. An important element of the offering under evaluation is the proposed delivery of an innovative backhaul internet connection, provided by Network Rail Telecoms, via fibre optic cable along the Settle – Carlisle railway line. 

Andrew Fleck, Chairman of Fibre Garden commented “This is the most exciting and ambitious infrastructure project since the construction of the railways 150 years ago transformed national communications for our Dales. It means an end to digital poverty and a lasting opportunity to revitalise our communities. The community spirit and effort already demonstrated, and needed to complete this project, will be a testament to community self-determination and action. It is an example that we will be happy to share with other communities in the near future.”

John Colton, Technical Director of Fibre Garden commented “An investment in FTTH is an investment in our future with almost immediate payback in terms of connectivity, livelihoods and services. It represents the only really future proofed solution to deliver internet access, a utility that has become a daily feature of our lives, and will become increasingly all important in our wired digital world.”

Fibre Garden projects that after all procedures for final investment, wayleaves and procurement are executed, community digging of fibres will commence in the Spring of 2013 and a lighting up of the fibres by Christmas.

This has been a joint endeavour as we recognized early on that combining our resources and efforts would be beneficial to the residents and businesses of both dales. It has the approval and support of both Parish Councils and the company has been established with a strong volunteer management team with combined experience in finance, marketing, fibre optic technology, education, health provision, and farming services.

The project is ambitious, as its aim is not simply to increase rural broadband speeds, but to demonstrate how economic disadvantage and social exclusion can be overcome in a rural area by the provision of future-proof Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband. In order to achieve its goals, it will harness community support and action alongside government investment and commercial partnership.

A detailed business plan, supported by extensive evidence, has been developed which informs that a 60km network connecting the two dales and 500+ premises will be constructed with a community organisational and digging effort and farmers’ community spirit. This is fully costed to a high technical standard including network installation, fibre cabling and fibre types, installation and fusion splicing, telephony, quality of service, infrastructure services and ongoing management thereof.

The network that is created will:

• provide a 100% fibre optic cable to all properties and businesses, and thus be fully future-proofed;
• be either own brand and open access ISP;
• enable initial broadband speeds of  40Mbps and 100 Mbps, with the option for Gb/s service in the future depending upon need and growth in demand;
• be a significant economic multiplier for businesses and the community as a whole;
• support educational opportunity and social advantage for all as increasingly new forms of learning methods develop;
• provide extra fibre capacity for community and future P2P use;
• be available to supply backhaul for 4G mobile phone coverage;
• provide support to farming enterprises, in areas where the rural economy relies upon a vibrant farming sector and where the national food supply agenda needs to be fully recognized and supported;
• be available to NHS Cumbria for informatics, telemedicine and telehealth research trials;
• be available for use by emergency services, critical in an upland and occasionally remote rural area;
• become a template for the creation of a fibre network, which will be available for other rural communities to use; and
• most importantly, be fit for purpose for accommodating other (unforeseen) technological advances that may transpire in the future 

Funding of the network will come from a variety of sources including BDUK/RDPE contribution of £300 per premise, possible further Cumbria County Council assistance from their Performance Related Grant (PRG), vendor finance, a community share issue, loans and work in-kind.

For further information contact:

admin@fibre-garden.co.uk

Skype Number: 01274 79 2484

Skype Account: fibregarden

Blog: http://fibregarden.blogspot.co.uk/

Web: http://www.fibre-garden.co.uk/index.html

#fibregarden

Attentive Secretary of State

The Secretary of State for DEFRA, Owen Paterson and Tim Farron MP, paid good attention to the arguments put forward by Dr William Lumb on the need to get fibre optic cables in the ground to all properties, enabling them to take full advantage of the growing number of essential services that can be accessed, in particular health care.

The Secretary of State was visiting Garsdale to acknowledge the work and achievements of Fibre GarDen in enabling a community project to provide its own fibre optic network in Garsdale and Dentdale and confirmed the support of, by way of a grant, DEFRA.  The meeting was held at Garsdale Design a leading business in the dale who are redesigning the devastated cities in Iraq and who are in urgent need of superfast broadband to ensure the continued growth of their business.

Further Press Releases:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2012/09/12/rural-growth/  
http://www.in-cumbria.com/home/environment-secretary-visits-cumbria-today-1.994501?referrerPath=home# http://totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=476206&G=1&C=4&page=1
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/09/fibre-garden-project-wins-first-uk-rural-community-broadband-cash.html

Funding Success!

Fibre GarDen, the community broadband company for Gardale and Dentdale is celebrating an award of £157,500 from DEFRA.

The company which is supported by both Parish Councils has been working for two years to secure funding which will enable it to lay fibre optic to every house in both dales. Chairman of the not-for-profit company, Andrew Fleck, said, “This represents 25% of our funding and we expect it to trigger further grants and investment. We have had enormous support from our communities which has enabled us to progress the project with confidence that it is what people want.”

Fibre GarDen has also secured the support of Andy Hudson of Network Rail in an innovative development which will connect the community network to fibres within the national rail infrastructure and thereby connect to the wider internet.

Fibre GarDen expects to offer a service choice of 40mb/s or 100mb/s. The latter would exceed speeds in central London and would place residents and local businesses at the forefront of on-line communication. 

The company aims to start construction in the spring of 2013 and light the fibres for Christmas.

Press Release from Tim Farron's Office

South Lakes MP Tim Farron will welcome Owen Paterson, the newly appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to Cumbria on Wednesday.

During his visit to Cumbria Owen Paterson will be visiting:

08.30am – 09.30 - Meeting with Fibre Garden Community Broadband project in Garsdale.

At Garsdale the minister will announce that the community is one of the first two to get an agreement-in-principle for a Rural Community Broadband Fund grant. Pending some conditions being filled by the community-led project, 525 premises will be connected to superfast broadband following a Government investment of £157,500.

Exciting Day!

It is going to be a very exciting and milestone day for both Garsdale and Dentdale tomorrow. Make sure you return to this blog to discover more!

Broadband Infrastructure Announcement

The Government has today announced a package of temporary measures, which it believes will make it easier for communications providers to deploy infrastructure and generate growth. The Government has said that it will legislate immediately following consultation where necessary, and/or use existing powers to ensure that, for the next five years: 

Read the full article

This has to be a step in the right direction even in YDNP!

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."