350 signatures + new developments

Dear All, A big thank you for your continuing support for the petition to bring superfast broadband to Ditchling. We now have 350 signatures - more than 200 here online and 150 on the paper version of the petition in the Post Office. Before following up formally with BT Openreach, we have been liaising with the Parish Council who have been working intensively on this project for some time. Obviously, we don't want to duplicate or dilute existing efforts and would like to deploy the petition to maximum effect. Our conversations have revealed a few interesting reasons for the delay in bringing superfast broadband to Ditchling, including: (1) We fall between two stools being on the border between the jurisdictions of East and West Sussex. (2) It has been difficult to find a location for the central superfast broadband cabinet which needs to be close to the existing cabinet outside the old doctors surgery. A possible site was identified before Christmas against the wall of the Post Office in The Bull car park, but unfortunately an agreement could not be reached with the publican. The good news is a new site has now been identified and appears close to being signed off - hopefully within the next couple of weeks. The bad news is, even if cleared and the funding is there, it could take another year. BT only undertake to provide the faster broadband in the next financial year - i.e. by April 2017!!!!!! So the plan is to wait for further news about the box siting and then put pressure on to get the provision sooner. In the meantime, please keep the petition moving and encourage your friends, family and neighbours to sign if they have not done so already. Please feel free to leave any comments/thoughts/feedback below. Thanks again for your support.