Community Broadband Update

As the saying goes - there’s good news and not so good news. The not so good news is that the restrictions applying to prevent the spread of Covid-19 mean that many of our planned activities have had to be paused. The good news is that without contravening the regulations, especially on social distancing, we have been able to continue planning for the post virus future. 

What activities have been paused? Your local volunteers are supported by the employed B4RN staff. They are all working from home and to comply with social distancing they can no longer work in teams, nor are they always able to enter properties to do the final installation of some house kits. This has meant a delay to completing the final phases at Crooklands and Millbrook.

So far as the volunteers are concerned the main effect is that we have had to pause the “dig days“.  On the last dig we had 15 volunteers so we would be in breach of the regulations on 2 counts - more than 2 people and social distancing. A shame because everyone enjoyed the work and engaging with new people - and the cakes, biscuits and bacon butties were brilliant!

The good news is that through the miracles of modern technology your Steering Group of volunteers have managed to continue with weekly video meetings and this means that we can continue planning for the resumption of full scale digging. However, thinking on a small scale, the regulations do allow everyone to work on their own property. So a number of individuals have been busy laying ducting from the boundary of their own property to the point where the ducting will go into the house.

For information about this just mail your question to b4rnpr@gmail.com and one of us will get back to you ASAP. 

In the meantime - stay safe.