Well, oddly, first for the Blackdown Hills!
Category Archives: Rural communications
Rural broadband guarantees: can EDDC deliver? If so, at what cost?
“Dozens of broadband network providers are expected to bid for six contracts to improve broadband connections in Somerset and Devon.
The second phase of a superfast broadband scheme for Somerset has been launched this week by Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS).”
This does not include East Devon, which decided to “go it alone”, applied for grants and was turned down because too much of the project was like the one they left!
Recently, the government has said EVERYONE must get a decent broadband service and is bringing in legislation to this effect:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/consumer-interests-at-heart-of-digital-economy-bill
and a Parliamentary Briefing paper just published states:
“Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is responsible for implementing the Government’s policy on superfast broadband roll-out which consists of three stages:
• provide superfast broadband coverage to 90% of UK premises by early 2016 and access to basic broadband (2Mbps) for all from December 2015 – “Phase 1”
• provide superfast broadband coverage to 95% of UK premises by the end of 2017 – “Phase 2”
• explore options to provide superfast coverage to the hardest to reach parts of the UK – “the final 5%”
The BDUK coverage targets include the commercial roll-out, however, the BDUK programme and funding is focussed on those areas that are not reached by the commercial roll-out.”
BRIEFING PAPER, Number CBP06643, 4 July 2016
So, where does this leave East Devon? Over to you, Councillor Twiss, Broadband Supremo ….
Rural broadband: the missing 5% deserve better
“RENEWED effort is required to ensure that the final 5% of premises have adequate broadband connections, says the Rural Services Network.
The government’s proposed “right to request” superfast broadband connections was disappointing, said the network in response to an Ofcom consultation.
Rural homes and businesses were being treated differently to the 95% of premises already connected, the network warned.
“Government intervention through the Superfast Broadband Programme has enabled networks to extend into rural areas where there has been a market failure,” said the network.
“This is benefitting many rural households and businesses – albeit often in the easier-to-reach rural areas,” it added.
The government has proposed a Universal Service Obligation that would see all premises given a legal right to receive a minimum broadband speed of 10Mbps.
But the network said: “Renewed effort is now required to reach the final 5% of premises, most of whom are in rural locations and who still constitute around a quarter of all rural premises.”
It had become clear that the proposal was, in fact, simply a “right to request” access to a broadband network rather than universal provision of access to such networks.
“This is very disappointing and means that households and businesses in the final 5% are being treated quite differently from those in the 95%.”
The network said premises which couldn’t achieve an acceptable broadband connection must not be financially penalised simply because of their location.
“Some form of uniform pricing structure is therefore required for USO provision,” it said. “This would be in line with other USOs, such as that for postage.”
The network said it strongly supported the notion that the cost of providing a USO connection to consumers should not be disproportionate.
Proposals for the USO would lead to unreasonable connection costs for some rural consumers, especially in the most remote or sparsely populated areas.
By definition it was likely to be relatively costly to provide broadband to the remaining 5% of yet-to-be connected areas, said the network.
“Setting a £3,400 (or similar) connection cost threshold will impose a cost penalty on many rural consumers, which in certain cases could be very high.
“The USO could be especially unfair to the farming community.
“We do not think it is either fair or reasonable to make consumers responsible for all of the costs above such a threshold.
“This will result in some deciding to forego a broadband connection and will particularly hit low income rural households or financially marginal rural businesses.”
The network added: We conclude that the proposed threshold is both fundamentally unfair to the final 5% of consumers and is likely to be unworkable in the real world.”
http://www.rsnonline.org.uk/services/network-fights-for-better-broadband
Ofcom wants rural broadband volunteers for research panel
“Ofcom said it wanted to find out more about the “rural broadband experience” by encouraging rural people to join its research panel.
Ofcom said it existed to make communications markets work for everyone. One of the ways it did so was by conducting research to find out about the customer experience across the UK.
Each year, Ofcom reports its findings in its flagship Connected Nations report – which provides a snapshot of the state of the UK communication network.
To inform this and wider work, Ofcom is calling for volunteers to sign up to join its expanded research panel of broadband customers.
Ofcom said it was “particularly looking to sign up more people who live in rural areas in order find out more about the challenges they face”.
Potential participants are encouraged to sign up via Ofcom’s partner’s website at https://signups.samknows.com/ofcom/
Volunteers who meet Ofcom’s sample requirements will be sent a unit to plug into a mains socket and connect to their home broadband router. …”
http://www.rsnonline.org.uk/services/telecoms-watchdog-seeks-rural-volunteers
Rural roads need more money
“… A report published today by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) shows that half of all small firms believe this country’s road and public transport system has got worse over last few years.
The three biggest issues highlighted in the report by small companies operating in rural areas are congestion on local roads, potholes and the cost of fuel.
It also warns a lack of regional planning is hampering business growth, particularly in rural area and FSB has also called on the newly-formed combined authorities around the country to commit to spending more on rural transport infrastructure and give the matter a higher priority.
The FSB’s national chairman, Mike Cherry, said while the Government is investing in transport, the ‘lion’s share’ is being spent on ‘big flagship projects’.
‘Most small businesses mainly rely on their local roads and public transport, so there is a strong case to prioritise investment in these smaller projects which will help to alleviate congestion and bottlenecks,’ said Mr Cherry.
‘The current devolution agenda in England presents a real opportunity to make a positive difference to rural communities. Small businesses want to see more resources earmarked for rural transport.
‘This will help support rural small businesses as well as the UK tourism industry, which are both disproportionately affected when local bus networks and roads are left to deteriorate,’ he added.”
http://www.localgov.co.uk/Small-firms-demand-more-money-for-countryside-roads/40935
South Hams community raising crowd funding to protect wildlife
A community in Devon taking South Hams District Council to a Judicial Review, for granting planning permission to a developer bent on destroying wildlife. The scheme also forces social tenants, against their wishes, from bungalows with gardens into flats.
The group says Council won’t protect them, so they are doing it for ourselves. They are asking for help to set a vitally- needed national precedent and stand up for the rights of wildlife, for local people and kids futures.
The campaign is for Brimhay; a close of small bungalows set around a green adjoining a wild stream valley, in the heart of Dartington village, near Totnes, Devon. The valley is home to dormice and five species of bats- all endangered and which should be protected by European legislation.
Their crowdfunding page is here:
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/www-dontburydartington-co-uk
Rural broadband: Lithuania outsmarts us
” … While our cities are not particularly impressive (London languishes in 26th place in the European Capital City download rankings) it is rural areas in which poor broadband is holding back business most. Connecting the most remote places is clearly expensive, but broadband is now the fourth utility, and essential to all companies.
The UK is experiencing an entrepreneurial revolution, but the fact is that it is near impossible to launch a startup with a couple of employees in a converted barn with a connection of 2Mbps or less. With a connection of 1Gbps, however, a whole new world of opportunities opens up.
Rural businesses are struggling to recruit young people
It’s important to stress that a more demanding target should not mean reinforcing the market position of the incumbent, BT, or even a particular type of technology. Getting ultra-fast speeds means enabling competing firms to enter the market on a level playing field.
One of the best examples of how to do this comes from a surprising source: Lithuania. It has the third highest upload speed in the world, as well as the global number one ranking for ICT infrastructure. This came about because, in 2004, Lithuania forced its equivalent of BT to give rivals full open access to the physical infrastructure of ducts and poles at a reasonable cost. This led to an explosion of investment by the alternative network providers, and they rocketed up the league tables as a result.
If we fail to rise to the challenge on broadband, we will miss out on the exciting technological developments of the next decade. Self-driving cars, virtual and enhanced reality, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, 5G and above all, cloud-based services, simply won’t happen without the speed, universal reach and reliability of a network that has untied itself from the copper cables of the past.”
“Universal broadband” – sure, that will be £3,500 please!
“A key announcement [in the Queen’s speech] for Devon and Cornwall was the inclusion of a Digital Economy Bill, which sets out plans for a universal service obligation on broadband. The Prime Minister said the legislation will guarantee “everyone” in Britain has access to “affordable high speed internet”.
However, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport confirmed that homes in some hard to reach rural areas will only be connected “on request”, and may be asked to cover installation costs above £3,500.
Tiverton and Honiton MP Neil Parish, who has repeatedly lobbied the Government over the provision of broadband in rural areas, has expressed concern about these qualifications.
“[I want to know] how we will get coverage to more rural areas. We’ve got problems in my constituency and across the Westcountry generally,” he said. “I will be pushing ministers for a better deal for rural areas.”
South West Devon MP Gary Streeter added that he is “confident” the measures will guarantee connectivity for 95% of households, but he “retains concerns” about how suppliers will reach the final 5%.
“[This is] is of immense importance to our region. We will have to continue to press the government on this,” he said.”
“Staff told to send work emails from home as Government admits 416,000 small firms do not have superfast broadband”
No working link to the story in today’s Daily Telegraph but the headline says it all.
Many of those businesses will be rural.
Voting in the digital age – just one problem …
“In a digital age when voting and registration ought to be getting quicker and easier the UK seems to be bent on keeping the system slow and inconvenient.
Other countries do it differently. Belgium, Norway and Israel are trying internet voting, as are a couple of states in America. Online voting would be a boon to Devon and Cornwall, which has pockets of sparsely populated areas where voters have a relatively long and off-putting distance to travel to the polling station.”
The problem? Many areas of rural Devon (including East Devon) still do not have internet access and seem unlikely to have it for many years, if at all.
And we are still awaiting Councillor Twiss’s Plan B after EDDC’s application for a grant from the Government was turned down (and turned down again on appeal) after the Government said it was not value-for-money.
Ministers halt automatic broadband roll-out for rural families because ‘not everyone wants to be connected’
“High speed internet will not be automatically delivered to countryside homes after ministers claimed some people living in rural areas do not “want to be connected”.
The pledge to provide high speed broadband to every home in the UK has been abandoned by the government in an attempt to save money.
Instead fast broadband will only be provided in rural areas on request because, according to a Whitehall document, “it is unlikely that everyone will want to be connected”.
Campaigners and MPs accused the Government of giving up on providing people in the countryside with a fast internet connection.
Many of those affected live in parts of England which otherwise have a good a connection such as Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset and Kent.
The Telegraph is launching a campaign urging ministers to provide broadband to more families living in harder to reach rural areas.
Superfast speeds are on course to reach 95 per cent of the UK by the end of next year through a roll-out programme run by BT and the Government
A year ago, then-Culture Secretary Sajid Javid acknowledged that reaching the “final five per cent” in rural areas would be “challenging”.
But he said: “The benefits of superfast broadband are clear from increasing productivity and economic growth to transforming family entertainment at home.
“We hope to find ways in which those benefits can be brought to even more people.”
Last November David Cameron, the Prime Minister, announced a new law to make a broadband connection a “universal service obligation” to give people the legal right to a 10megabits (MB) per second connection no matter where they live.
However, according to a consultation on the new law, ministers have given up on delivering superfast broadband automatically to the “final five per cent”.
It said: “It is unlikely that everyone will want to be connected, even if that option is made available to them, and so we do not believe that an additional broadband roll-out programme at this time is proportionate or would represent value for money.”
It also emerged that people living in the countryside will have to pay for any additional cost of connecting them to a good broadband speed.
Ed Vaizey, the Culture minister, admitted “there might be an element where individuals would have to contribute in order to get it” a basic 10MB speed.
He told MPs: “It is important that there would be a potential cap on the amount of public funding or industry funding contribution.
“If a particular connection was going to cost many, many thousands of pounds, as is the case with a landline, you might have to have a cap on the per-premises funding that would come under the USO.”
The plans were attacked by MPs and campaigners, who said it would “leave behind” people who live in the countryside.
Grant Shapps MP, the former Conservative party chairman, said: “We need a universal service obligation which provides the same minimum broadband speed whether you are in town or country.
“Bureaucratic pen-pushers seem content to think it is OK to leave people in the countryside in the internet slow lane.
“It’s a known fact that once people have high speed broadband their usage expands as they discover new ways to work from home, download smart TV and generally benefit from enhanced communication.
“We need to take the simple view that broadband is the fourth utility and accept that everyone has a right to their super-fast connection.”
Countryside Alliance head of policy Sarah Lee added: “This is very disappointing.
“The whole point of a universal service obligation is that it applies to everyone, and this one was suggested specifically to ensure that the most rural, hard-to-reach properties will enjoy workable broadband speeds.
“High speed broadband is an essential service for modern life and we believe a lack of broadband capacity in rural areas is holding back the countryside, socially and economically.”
“Broad Banned”
Times Editorial: Broad Banned
Friday 6 May 2016
“It is worth sticking with plans to bring high-speed internet to every corner of Britain?
For those who live, farm or run businesses in Cumbria, east Yorkshire or the West Country, these are frustrating times. For years they have lagged behind urban Britain in access to high-speed broadband and all that flows through it. Their frustration may be about to boil over.
This government and its coalition predecessor have in principle grasped the importance of investing in internet infrastructure. Two years ago David Cameron called broadband the “fourth utility”.
Last year Sajid Javid, then secretary of state for culture, media and sport, undertook to extend “superfast” access beyond the 95 per cent of premises who have been promised it by 2017. To this end he announced funding for a series of pilot projects, using novel technologies and business models where conventional ones had not attracted private investment, to bring 21st-century broadband to the furthest reaches of this country.
This admirable ambition is now in danger of being shelved. Ed Vaizey, Mr Javid’s successor, hinted as much last month. A government consultation document released since then argues that reaching the last 5 per cent would not represent value for money. Further, it suggests that people in remote areas would be unlikely to take up the offer of superfast broadband even it was available.
Providing high-speed connections for windblown islands and peninsulas is more expensive on a per capita basis than for blocks of flats and offices. Even so, pulling the plug on superfast for all would be infuriating for those directly affected and a false economy for the rest of us.
More than a million premises hoping for faster broadband may be denied it. Lives are not threatened, but livelihoods are. Broadband has acquired so many roles so quickly that businesses depend on it to expand. Investors base their decisions on access to it. Schools depend on it to thrive and farmers, the elderly and those on benefits need it as their principle connection to public services that are increasingly provided online.
“The benefits of superfast broadband are clear,” Mr Javid said last year. The pilot projects he championed are yielding progress. Their technologies, using mobile and satellite telephony where landlines are uneconomic, have global potential. It would be a mistake for both the public and private sectors to give up on the “final 5 per cent”. It would be an even graver blunder, however, for the government and regulators to use arguments about the 5 per cent as an excuse to neglect the 95.
The average British broadband connection speed rose last year by 27 per cent to nearly 29 megabits per second (Mbps). This is impressive by past standards but it masks huge variations and a fundamental structural problem. British broadband is a hybrid product of privatisation and piecemeal regulation, overwhelmingly dominated by BT and its Openreach subsidiary.
Yesterday BT (re)announced a £6 billion investment in its network. Its rivals, who depend on it, protest that this is not enough. They have a point. More for its shareholders’ sake than its customers, BT is investing in copper-based technology rather than state-of-the-art fibre optics.
Meanwhile, it has spent nearly £2 billion on football broadcast rights and reported a 15 per cent rise in profits for 2015 to more than £3 billion. Ofcom has threatened to break up BT to enable Openreach to concentrate on building a world-class broadband infrastructure. It is time to make good on that threat.”
“Rural locations becoming more attractive to home movers in the UK”
“People in the UK want to live in villages but the need to have easy access to shops, transport and medical facilities and good broadband, new research has found.
Some 21% of people who are moving home said that they wanted to live in a village, making it easily the most popular type of location, compared to 14% for a market town and only 12% for either a big city or a suburb, according to the study by Strutt & Parker.
The Housing Futures Report found that broadband and mobile connections are essential to rural life. Access to broadband was a key factor for 49% of those intending to move to a village, while 38% highlighted mobile connectivity.
It reveals that with 60% want to be able to walk to shops, 48% close to local transport and 45% near to medical facilities.
‘The UK might seem to be focused on urbanisation but we believe a new, overlooked trend is set to shape Britain’s housing market over the coming decades and this is the desire to move back to rural locations,’ said Stephanie McMahon, head of research at Strutt & Parker.
The shift away from cities is being driven by people looking for neighbourhood safety at 86%, while 58% want space between neighbours and 48% are looking for a strong community feel.
‘The expansion of broadband and mobile communications has seen a greater uptake of working from home in rural locations compared to urban areas. It seems that the same factors that once drove urbanisation, improving economic and social conditions, are now inspiring the village revival,’ added McMahon.
The report shows a significant increase in respondents looking for rental accommodation. 10% of those wanting to move to a village would live in a professionally managed private rental unit, up from 1% in 2013.
The South East, South West and North East are the three leading destinations for people who are intending to move in the next five years. The South West’s appeal as a lifestyle and retirement location is set to continue attracting moves from the South East and London and with increased government investment in the Northern Powerhouse, the North West is likely to become more attractive.”
Source: Hinterland
http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=cd5b83a46a39234dad311accb&id=283e85c300&e=7398d9906f
Broadband (orlack of) for East Devon – the never-ending story
Recall that EDDC decided to pull out of the Devon and Somerset broadband bid citing the reason that the bid was not transparent!!! They then applied for funding from another government source, assuring us that this would be successful, and it was refused – because, in part, it duplicated the bid that EDDC had decided to withdraw from!
Scrutiny Committee Minute 14 April 2016:
“The Portfolio Holder Central Services and the Portfolio Holder Finance continued to work with a number of providers to encourage as many as possible to come forward in filling the gap of service that phase 2 of the CDS project would leave , even though this authority does not control the budget for broadband delivery.
…..
RESOLVED
- That the committee supports the Portfolio Holder Central Services [Councillor Phil Twiss] in his endeavours for alternative solutions to meet the needs of the areas not covered by the CDS project;
- That a progress report and revised timetable is requested from CDS;
- That the committee receives a further update from the Portfolio Holder Central Services in approximately six months time or as soon as there are further significant developments.
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/1674827/140416-scrutiny-minutes.pdf
“Housing Bill: 16 Defeats And U-Turns Inflicted On Government’s Flagship Reforms”
“The Government’s flagship housing legislation is having a miserable time of it in the House of Lords. Three defeats last week followed by five this mean the Housing and Planning Bill will look significantly different by the time it returns to MPs a week on Monday.
And peers have another day at it.
From ending council houses for life to selling off expensive social housing to subsidise home-buyers, the Housing and Planning Bill is the Government’s answer to the housing crisis.
But it has critics. And with an “anti-Tory” Labour-Lib Dem majority in the House of Lords, plus disgruntled Tory peers, the Bill is being slowly demolished.
MPs may ignore the will of the Lords, but there has already been a series of concessions. Here are 16 defeats and U-turns it’s suffering from.
1. The Treasury has been blocked from keeping the proceeds of the forced sale of high-value council houses – to fund Right-to-But discounts – without parliamentary approval.
2. A flagship scheme to hand well-off first-time buyers a taxpayer-funded 20% discount on a Starter Home has been moderated.
3. English councils can decide how many starter homes are built-in their area.
4. Peers voted in support of a Labour-led amendment to give local councils the discretion over whether to implement “pay to stay”, a market rate charge for better-off tenants.
5. Peers to back an amendment to lower the “pay to stay” taper rate from 20p to 10p in every pound, so lower-paid families would not be hit as hard.
6. The Lords voted 266 to 175 to increase the “pay to stay” threshold by £10,000.
7. Wide open “planning permission in principle” powers are to be limited to housing development.
8. Parish councils and local forums right to appeal against developments they think go against a “local plan”.
9. The Government will consider a proposal to ensure a one-for-one – and like-for-like – replacement of council homes sold under the forced sale.
10. The Government is to look at backing down on the forced sale of council homes in national parks and areas of national beauty.
11. Ministers have accepted a proposal to make it harder for landlords to evict vulnerable people that have abandoned their homes.
12. The Government has been forced to consider giving councils discretion to exclude building homes in rural areas.
13. Ministers backed down on replacing lifelong secure tenancies with contracts lasting up to five years, and agreed to extend maximum to 10 years.
14. Ministers will insist letting agents have to put money in to a Client Money Protection account to stop “rogues” running off with deposit.
15. Ministers agreed to review planning laws relating to basement developments amid fears councils cannot control the growth of “subterranean development”.
16. The Government will look again at private landlords being able to reclaim properties when the become vacant after concern that it was open to being used as a “back-door” way to evict tenants.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/housing-bill-defeats-u-turns_uk_571a0368e4b077f671e7bb8e
Rural broadband – no guarantees people will ever get it
EDDC chose to remove itself from the Devon BDUK contract negotiations to go-it-alone with a government grant application which was recently refused.
“People living and working in isolated rural areas may miss out on taxpayer-funded broadband despite a Government pledge to roll-out “universal” superfast speeds, the UK minister responsible for the telecoms sector has warned.
Ed Vaizey told a gathering of MPs, “I’m not going to guarantee to you that every single premise is going to get 10 Mpbs but it should be potentially possible.”
Last year, the Government promised that everyone should have the legal right to request a 10 Mbps connection by the end of this Parliament, no matter where they live. Mr Vaizey said then that this could come into force as early as 2017.
But when MPs on the culture, media and sport committee asked if this could be truly universal, he suggested limiting the amount of public funding available on hard-to-reach properties.
Mr Vaizey also admitted to “significant delays” in the DCMS’ Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK ) unit, which hands out subsidies to make delivering superfast broadband in rural areas economically viable.
He said BDUK is currently “on track” with its target to cover 95pc of Britain’s geography with superfast broadband by 2017, which it defines as achieving minimum speeds of 10 Mpbs.
But he blamed delays in rolling out internet on local authorities, saying that councils took too long to negotiate contracts. Negotiations were “extremely time-consuming and significantly delayed the project,” he said. “I should’ve intervened much earlier.”
This latest hearing comes one day after Sharon White, Ofcom’s chief executive, faced the same group of MPs, who asked about the regulator’s plans to reform BT Openreach.
Ofcom has proposed sweeping changes to further distance Openreach from BT, for example, by giving the division control over its own finances, but Ms White said discussions with BT are still in their “early stages” and may not reach a voluntary agreement.
Ms White did not set a deadline on negotiations but said that a timescale of when to expect changes would be available later in the summer.
Gavin Patterson, BT’s chief executive, also faced a grilling from the cross-party committee last month during which he admitted that Openreach misses 1,000 repair appointments a week.
The committee is due to present its final report to the Government in the summer.”
More on rural broadband – yet another omnishambles
It appears that the Government felt that there might be too much overlap between the EDDC bid and the one for the rest of Devon that EDDC pulled out of to go it alone and that it would not be a good use of public money.
From papers submitted to the Scrutiny Committee:
From a report bt Phil Twiss:
“Update to EDDC scrutiny committee (14th April meeting) re Broadband provision
You will be aware that EDDC submitted a bid for funding to the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) South West Ultrafast Broadband fund in respect of a technical solution (EDDC in conjunction with Broadway Partners) to provide wider provision of Broadband in East Devon “not spots/white areas” where the current Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS)/British Telecommunications (BT), BT commercial or any other provider has any current plans to do so. The application was for £2 million.
I regret that our application was unsuccessful as you will see from the two letters that are appended to this update.
The reasons given for refusal to progress our application are disappointing given there is no comment on the validity or otherwise of the technical solution proposed in the application and mainly relates to tax payers money potentially double funding the project and EDDC’s unwillingness to share data with CDS to avoid this.
EDDC has never been unwilling to share data with CDS as is acknowledged by CDS and as recently as 4th February 2016 in the E Mail below from me to CDS which again sets out our position. BDUK has assumed a view on data sharing without asking EDDC if this was actually the case.
The refusal was appealed by the EDC CEO and the second letter as attached maintains the position where for reasons best known to BDUK suggests that in order to avoid double funding an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) would need to be signed with CDS whereby no details of where, when or how tax payers money could be published by EDDC in terms of openness and transparency. To date EDDC has refused to sign an NDA with CDS for either phase 1 or going in to phase 2 delivery of Broadband where the explanation given is on grounds of commercial confidentiality; difficult to comprehend given no contracts have been agreed for phase 2 delivery of service!”
SO EDDC IS SAYING IT WANTS OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY IN CONTRACTS!!!! THE COUNCIL THAT REFUSES TO PUBLISH ANY INFORMATION ON ITS OWN CONTRACTS!!!!
What the government said:
“To avoid using State aid, it would be necessary to ensure that any public funding be provided on the same basis as commercial finance, in other words, via a loan or similar with commercial rates of interest. As such, there may be more appropriate approaches to accessing the necessary project finance, including via commercial lending, or possibly via the proposed Broadband Infrastructure Fund that was announced in last autumn’s Spending Review.”
Click to access 140416-scrutiny-agenda-combined.pdf
So, our rural businesses are still up the creek without paddles.
Next scrutiny committee agenda published – rural broadband down the pan
Really worth a full read but here are some highlights:
Broadband (or lack of):
“I regret that our application was unsuccessful as you will see from the two letters that are appended to this update.” (Twiss quote)
The exchange of correspondence between EDDC and the grant funders who turned down the application is VERY enlightening and should be a major embarrassment to lead councillor Phil Twiss.
Having pulled out of the Devon-wide consortium that has just been granted extra funding we are – precisely nowhere, in fact worse than that, much further back with rural broadband provision than ever before.
Public engagement (or lack of):
A risible attempt to produce a (very brief) report that pretends that EDDC consults appropriately and widely – but listing examples where the public has the exact opposite opinion!
Website (or lack of)
Boasting that more and more forms are going online and how wonderful the industry insiders think it is (so it’s a pity you can rarely find what you are looking for as an outsider and with many documents missing. But how you can get gold stars from your colleagues when your search function is described only as “fairly good” beats Owl!
and the committee’s draft report for the council’s own annual report all up for scrutiny.
Rural broadband still losing out as cities spped up
“The latest report from Ofcom on UK broadband speeds suggests that there is still a wide disparity between urban and rural areas.
The average broadband speed in the UK stands at 28.9Mbps (megabits per second), a 27% increase on the average speed last year, the study indicates.
But it was weighted towards urban areas, where users enjoy services three times faster than in rural areas.
Speeds in the countryside had “not improved” said one expert.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “Most people’s broadband is getting faster, but too many people still can’t get a good, reliable service.”
Dan Howdle, editor-in-chief of broadband comparison site Cable told the BBC: “Ofcom’s report is quick to highlight the increase in UK broadband speeds as an overall average and goes as far as to split things down into urban, semi-urban and rural contexts. …”
Rural broadband: East Devon misses out on extra £8m by leaving consortium to go it alone
East Devon decided to pull out of CDS and go it alone with its own broadband deal, thereby missing out on this extra funding and meaning thousands of pounds in the pockets of “consultants” who will be employed by EDDC to duplicate the work of CDC.
“The broadband scheme for Devon and Somerset has received an £8 million windfall in last week’s budget.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne awarded Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS), which is rolling out broadband in rural areas, an extra £4m in funding for so-called ultra-fast connections.
The remaining £4m is expected to come from match funding by the private sector.
This additional funding, which comes on top of a £10m pot announced in the Autumn Statement for the whole South West, is intended to deliver broadband speeds of a minimum of 100Mbps to at least 4,000 premises in phase two of the CDS programme, which will eventually see broadband rolled out across the final 10% of the two counties so far uncovered.”
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Osborne-hands-Devon-Somerset-8m-ultra-fast/story-28964282-detail/story.html
East Devon Watch 