I'm sure you will remember the number of times I moaned about our snail-paced internet connection. Days when I couldn't post, or couldn't even get a connection at all. Then came the wonderful day when the BT cabinets supplying the village were upgraded to fibre - all except the one serving our part of the village. There then followed a five YEAR battle to get our cabinet upgraded, with so many QUANGOs telling us why it was impossible. The best one, I thought was because of the worms in a grass verge which was designated an SSSI or something improbable.
Finally the work was done to put in a new fibre-optic cabinet and connect us to the 21st Century - but not quite! We still have ancient crumbling aluminium wires from the cabinet to our houses. They are crackly, unreliable and don't like wet weather.
So imagine the collective excitement when both the government and our county council announced grants for installing FTTP for rural areas.
As always there's red tape bound up with more red tape, but two brave and determined ladies in our road took on the task of trying to get these grants for our neighbourhood. They set up communication channels - everything from leaflets through doors to a WhatsApp group, a website and adapting the FB group from the Cabinet battle.
Two hundred and sixty households expressed an interest and we were told last week that we needed 160 of them to make a firm commitment/pledge for the grant to be forthcoming.
Exactly one week later and we've made it! Well over the minimum number needed.
It won't happen overnight, of course, but there is a really good chance that we will now have a chance to get a service most people take for granted.
Finally the work was done to put in a new fibre-optic cabinet and connect us to the 21st Century - but not quite! We still have ancient crumbling aluminium wires from the cabinet to our houses. They are crackly, unreliable and don't like wet weather.
So imagine the collective excitement when both the government and our county council announced grants for installing FTTP for rural areas.
As always there's red tape bound up with more red tape, but two brave and determined ladies in our road took on the task of trying to get these grants for our neighbourhood. They set up communication channels - everything from leaflets through doors to a WhatsApp group, a website and adapting the FB group from the Cabinet battle.
Two hundred and sixty households expressed an interest and we were told last week that we needed 160 of them to make a firm commitment/pledge for the grant to be forthcoming.
Exactly one week later and we've made it! Well over the minimum number needed.
It won't happen overnight, of course, but there is a really good chance that we will now have a chance to get a service most people take for granted.
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