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Hello everybody.

Here is a brief news update.

We have had three public meetings about fast broadband and mobile communications in the Parish.

The first in Reagill Village Hall on the evening of Nov. 23, the second in Crosby Ravensworth Village Hall on the afternoon of Nov. 27 at 14:00 and the third in Crosby Ravensworth Village Hall on Dec. 6 as part of our Parish Council Meeting.

At these meetings I briefly covered what fast broadband is, why it seems to be a very necessary development and how we can get it in our area. Craig Brass (originally of Crosby Ravensworth, grandson of Dorothy Brass of Low Row) representing the NextGenUs Community Interest Company conveyed their offer of terms
to those gathered.

Crosby Ravensworth Parish Council have provisionally agreed to support the NextGenUs offer if it gets enough community support in the form of sign-ups.

I am considering the pros and cons of our LVC group enlarging to become composed of villages covered by the circulation of The Leith- Lyvennet Newsletter.

It is possible that this may be the best way forward either with the NextGenUs offer or another offer that is tendered.

Personally, I’d be surprised if NGU’s offer is bettered as it is extremely favourable price-wise and performance-wise, but the tender process proposed by Freddy Markham (Morland BB Champion and acting Chair of Leith-Lyvennet Broadband Group) to be initiated on February 16th is intended to remove all doubts on that score.

There will be an all-day meeting of Broadband Champions within the Leith-Lyvennet area on December 29th, to inaugurate the group, establish its mission statement and discuss our position in regard to BDUK potential funding possibly through vouchers and the NextGenUs offer.

Their offer is as follows and their website is currently in the process of being updated:

“Fast Rural Broadband and Improved Mobile Coverage - Your Community Needs You!
NextGenUs UK CIC has selected Crosby Ravensworth as one of several villages it plans to deploy High Speed Fibre Optic internet access to initially - at an amazing 100 Meg. This is up to 50 times what people currently can get in Crosby Ravensworth! With potential future uses such as live video feeds, desktop sharing for work and education from home, huge choice of TV channels delivered over the internet and teleconferencing for many government services including the NHS and social services, the range of possible uses for this speed have great promise for enhancing quality of life and reducing waste.
The aim to have fibre optic internet as widespread as mains electricity and where possible, NextGenUs prefer to connect properties to fibre to allow people to enjoy the highest speed connection. Sometimes, for outlying properties, this may not be possible. NextGenUs connects these properties via wireless offering speeds of around 50 Meg with the aim of getting them onto fibre through the CIC reinvestment (see below).
Rollout would be carried out under a Community Interest Company (CIC) model meaning 65% of all profits get reinvested into the community after the cost of deploying the network is paid back (which takes roughly 5-7 years). This would bring improvements to speeds on the network as well as provide capital to projects within the village. By signing up, you would be indirectly supporting the local community and providing it with a sustainable funding source for the future.
Additional benefits for your community specifically include adding a cell site to create good mobile coverage, offering the school a much faster connection at the same price or less than they pay now and free wireless access to anybody who has booked the village hall.
At a meeting of the Parish Council, councillors unanimously voted in favour of supporting the NextGenUs project as the best option for the village.
Deployment depends on 80-90% uptake of everybody who currently has broadband by the end of January with the aim of having the service live in the first half of next year. We need your help to reach this target.
How much does connection cost??The charge NextGenUs has to incur to connect each property is normally £500 - £1,000 (depending upon the distance and complexity), but NextGenUs can offer this for just £149.95 provided that local residents can dig a trench the short distance from your property boundary back to your premises! NextGenUs will handle the rest.
What will the ongoing cost be??£29.95 is the monthly charge - but remember, this should be compared to the current phone line + broadband charge of around £28 a month on average. Once subscribed to our service you will be able to cancel your existing phone line (should you so wish) and route calls over your fibre line or simply not have a home phone service in favour of just using your mobile phone. For people without broadband, we can supply a fibre optic line for £6.95 per month with an unlimited landline call package costing around £6 making it a similar price to what you pay now while allowing you to support your community without signing up to internet access if you feel that you don’t need it. That would help ‘future-proof’ your property and add value to it.
How is this done??NextGenUs bring a fibre optic “ring main” around the village (generally through fields at the back of properties but understanding some hard dig will be required to get to certain locations) to the boundary of each property. Being a Community Interest Company that will be giving something back to the community, we ask that residents make a contribution to the project. Members of the community with the required know-how can form a small team (as happened in Ashby in Lincolnshire where we previously deployed this technology) to dig a small trench through gardens for NextGenUs to come in and lay the individual fibre optic cable to the property and fill it in afterwards. This can also be done on an individual basis for your own property if preferred. The whole process cuts down on expensive civil engineering and also means contractors do not come and make a mess in your garden. The fibre needs to be about 2.5 feet deep to avoid severance from gardening spades, etc.
Why is it necessary??Some may question why these speeds are needed and that they are happy with the connection they get at the moment, but the NextGenUs answer is that the fast internet connections need to be installed first and a raft of common use technology will be available later just like roads have to be built before cars can easily drive over land. Fast internet access will make this area more attractive for business people to relocate to and our residents to remain in, as people would be able to work from home on the connections NextGenUs provide, thus, as a side benefit for some, the development is likely to increase property prices.
Also we ask you to think about the different uses that various current and future generations within the village will make of it. Younger generations already make use of the current technology heavily.
No commercial provision can offer you this speed while bringing 65% of profits back into your community. This is self-help on various levels.
If you have any questions, please phone Charles Paxton, Broadband Champion for the Lyvennet Valley Community, on 01931 715270. More information can also be found on the NextGenUs website at HYPERLINK “http://www.NextGenUs.net”www.NextGenUs.net. All signup forms should be given to Charles Paxton at Greywalls, Maulds Meaburn.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to working with everyone to deploy high speed internet access in our parish ahead of many towns and cities…??The latest terms and conditions of service are available on our website should the copy on the back of the sign-up sheet be difficult to read.”