Superfast Broadband for Scamblesby
Update September 2020
A significant amount of work has been completed in relation to the Community Broadband application, including: consultation with all villagers; research of suitable providers; in depth application; investigation of current speeds for all properties to be included; negotiation with provider to reduce potential costs by e.g. self dig. The final cost for 83 properties was indicated as £283,700. When the maximum possible grant was applied there was still a £130,000 shortfall, approx. £1500 per household. Having discussed this with the provider two major issues came to light. Firstly, Onlincolnshire had originally stated that they would look to pay any shortfall, however the provider would not accept third party funding to pay the balance, meaning that each household entering the scheme would have to contribute £1,500. Secondly, the application would need to be signed by an individual, making that individual responsible for the entire balance and responsible for collecting the contributions from individual households. Following an assessment of the entire project and having identified these and several other issues, the Parish Council unanimously resolved not to proceed any further with the application. It was noted that there are alternative solutions for individual households such as 4G and satellite solutions and further information can be found at http://www.onlincolnshire.org/broadband-for-residents/other-solutions
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Scamblesby Community Broadband Scheme
Scamblesby village has been waiting several years for superfast broadband. It is now likely that it will be delivered by the end of October 2019. However, not all properties will receive it and those furthest from the ‘hub’ may not get hugely fast speeds as it still relies on copper wire to the properties.
The Parish Council has investigated 2 Government backed schemes which provide fibre to the premises (FTTP) and allow all participating properties within a community to receive up to 1gbps if needed, i.e. 1000mbps, and will future proof participating properties as bandwidth requirements increase.
Gigabit Voucher Scheme (https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/)
· Any small business in the community can claim up to £2500 for FTTP
· Residential properties can claim up to £500 for FTTP
Rural Gigabit Connectivity Scheme (https://gov.uk/government/publications/rgc-programme-key-information)
· A public building that doesn’t have decent broadband (e.g. the school) is funded to become a ‘hub’, and gets broadband speeds up to 1gbps
· Properties in the community can then apply (as a group) for grants of £3500 for a small business or £1500 for residential properties.
In both schemes we:
· Identify households in the village who are interested
· Apply for FTTP as a community
· Approach a provider to give a community wide cost for the installation
· Apply to Onlincolnshire for the vouchers/funding to make up the cost difference between our voucher total and the installation cost
· Have FTTP installed within 12 months providing speeds of up to 1gigabit
These schemes COST NOTHING to apply and carry NO LEGAL OBLIGATION
Scamblesby Community application will be submitted 30th September 2019. Please let the Parish Council know before then if you would like to be included. Send name/address/the trading name of any business you run from Scamblesby to:
scamblesbypc@gmail.com by 27th September 2019 to be included in the scheme.
Update 5th September 2019 - Onlincolnshire have confirmed that superfast broadband will be live in Scamblesby by 31st October 2019. Please contact your broadband provider to subscribe.
Update 3rd Feb 2017
The dates and phases are indicative only and because of the complexity of the proposed build, Onlincolnshire do reserve the right to move timescales both forward and back, depending upon engineering conditions.
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Update 4th May 2016
Stephen Brookes advised that the second draft deployment plan provided by BT was not acceptable. A third plan is due to review 6th May, it is hoped that this will be acceptable. BT have confirmed that they are still on target to deliver phase 2 by late Summer/early Autumn 2017
Update 3rd March 2016:
Stephen Brookes was contacted for a progress update (12th Feb 2016) and responded as detailed here: ''We are still waiting for BT to come back to us. They had provided a Phase 2 deployment plan but it was rejected. This has caused some delay, but we hope to have something more definite by the end of March.''
Scamblesby Council will post an update as soon as we have received it.
Update following the meeting 4th Nov:
The notes from the meeting are attached below.
The good news is that Scamblesby has been included in the second phase of the superfast broadband rollout programme. This means that all properties in Scamblesby will benefit from speeds of at least 10-12mbps, with most achieving at least 24mbps.
Progress can be checked online at www.onlincolnshire.org
To provide feedback to MP on areas where you believe our community is disadvantaged, please use the website: www.lhcc.org.uk
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Broadband connection is provided to the majority of Scamblesby from a central exchange in Stenigot. This cabinet is being upgraded to fibre as part of the first phase of Lincolnshire superfast broadband programme. However, the supply from the Stenigot exchange to Scamblesby is still provided by copper wire. Due to the distance between Scamblesby and the cabinet, we are unlikely to see any significant increase in broadband speed in Scamblesby.
Some parts of Scamblesby currently have broadband speeds in the region of 0.5mbps, way lower than the UK and Lincolnshire average speed. Many of us face challenges with email, surfing, shopping online, video calling etc. The lack of speed also makes it almost impossible to work from home, meaning both the social and economic gap between Scamblesby and the rest of the UK is widening and residents of Scamblesby are in danger of being left behind in this digital age.
Scamblesby Parish Council have arranged a meeting with the Superfast Broadband Programme Manager, Lincolnshire and a representative from the MP's office, to understand what the future plans are to deliver faster broadband to Scamblesby and what we can do to support this issue.
This is an open meeting and all residents are invited to attend. The more support for this issue we can show, the more likely it is that Scamblesby will be included in the next phase of the programme, so please try to attend and show your support.