BT/ DITCHLING BROADBAND OPEN MEETING -- Tuesday 10th May, 6.45pm, Old Meeting House -- BE THERE!

The Parish Council has organised a meeting with BT this coming Tuesday 10 May at 6.45pm in the Old Meeting House in The Twitten (see map). Paul Boichat, Senior Project Manager at BT, will be at this meeting to explain the history of Ditchling's superfast broadband difficulties, as well as procedure and siting options. It is an opportunity, not just to complain, but to look at the options and encourage BT and ESCC Highways to proceed speedily with this project. IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT THAT AS MANY RESIDENTS AS POSSIBLE ATTEND TO SHOW HOW MUCH DEMAND THERE IS. Please do come along to hear BT's assessment from the horse's mouth, and raise your questions/comments/frustrations. BT have received a large number of complaints since the announcement that superfast broadband will not be rolled out until June 2017, in response to which SE Regional Director has written the following open letter. In case you have not already seen it, you may find this interesting background, ahead of Tuesday's meeting. The siting of the required cabinet seems to remain far from a done deal, so it is crucial we keep up the pressure. BT/ DITCHLING OPEN MEETING -- Tuesday 10th May, 6.45pm, Old Meeting House Be there or be square! Thanks all! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Date: 26 April 2016 at 16:40:59 BST Cc: , Subject: SUPERFAST PROVISION FOR DITCHLING OPEN LETTER TO DITCHLING RESIDENTS Thank you for your email(s). I understand how important broadband is in people’s lives and can assure you that as a company BT is working hard to provide the best service we can. I’m proud to say that in the South East of England we have been able to provide 93% superfast coverage in just 5 years, however I also know that this will be cold comfort to you. The issue of superfast provision for Ditchling was brought to my attention on the 18th August 2015 by Mr Ian Lambert. I investigated why we had not provided service to Ditchling and it was clear that the issue was technically siting the green cabinet required. The difficulties in doing this meant that instead of being included in the commercial roll out around 2011/12 as no solution was seen, it was viewed as technically difficult, it then needed to be addressed later in the programme with the hope that new developments might provide an answer. I asked Paul Boichat to become involved, Paul is programme lead for the superfast programme with East Sussex CC that has delivered superfast to 350,000 East Sussex premises. With Mr Lamberts help we made contact with Mr Don McBeth, chair of the Parish council, and an on-site meeting was held on 14th October 2015. Without wanting to go into too much technical detail the unavoidable technical parameters for siting a superfast cabinet are (in summary): - Safety of the public and the engineers who will work in the cabinet - Within 100m of cable run (typically aim for 50m) of the existing green cabinet - Access to power - Safe from other hazards, flooding, road accident etc Paul has done an excellent job on your behalf championing and creating solution(s) to help and this resulted in 4 Possible locations to site the green cabinet being identified (in preference order): 1. Post office option: Outside of the Post office against the post office wall behind the phonebox. This option meets all the parameters and is the closest to the existing cabinet but requires relocation of the notice board and as the land is private it requires permission. No permission has been received. 2. Pub Car park option: Just inside the pub car park against the wall on the far left of the car park (looking from the road). This option meets all parameters but potentially requires extra work to duct through the wall and is on private land and permission is required. No permission has been received. 3. Lamp post option: This options requires moving the lamppost and power pillar and then a re-site with the cabinet as power exists in the verge to the left of the lamppost. Authorities has been contacted re costs and feasibility of re-siting the lamppost, they in turn will no doubt need quotes from their sub-contractors and to contract the work. 4. Footpath option: On the footpath side against the pub car park wall. The concern is the minimum safe distance to the road required by highways authority may not be enough. Key concern would be the safety of pedestrians and engineers when working on the cabinet. ESCC Highways have been consulted to see if they consider this might be possible. All of these options would require further technical due diligence typically with pilot holes being dug to check for unknown services or footings. I understand Mr McBeth [Chairman of Ditchling Parish Council] is aware of these options and, on receipt of many emails over the last few days, Paul Boichat offered Mr McBeth a community meeting to explain further however this has been declined by Mr McBeth. Whilst this offer from Paul remains open I thought I would write to you to explain where we are. I cannot, for confidentiality reasons, expand further apart from saying that the date of June 2017 reflects progression of options 3 and 4 with various costs and permissions provided from authorities, ESCC Highways and once the site is firmly decided this will then need to be scheduled into a full engineering programme of work which is planned and contracted some time in advance. Please be assured we will do all we can to continue to find a solution for the residents of Ditchling. Regards Dave Axam BT South East Regional Director