Project Update #9

Sorry we have been quiet with the updates over the last 2 months, between not knowing if we need waterproofs or suncream, working with no phone signal, plus dealing with Grass Cutting schedules, lockdown lifting deadlines, wireless printers, and magic smoke coming out of our splicing machine  time has disappeared quickly.

 

One of the biggest barriers we face currently is with our Materials Supply chain. We still have back orders for parts dating back to Feb, particularly the pre terminated fibre drop cables. The shortage of these means triple the amount splicing needed for every property.

 

This is a fairly short update just to keep in touch.

 

 

SCC Highways required a full road closure for the 100m stretch of trenching and also require this to be conventionally trenched. As a result this section is now fast approaching a build cost of £20k to connect 5 properties (the other skilgate properties could be reached via another route but this would leave those 5 stranded.) This far exceeds either our commercial investment plus the committed voucher funding, and while we will complete this work and connect the properties in question, we have approached the council for top up funding via their Broadband Challenge Fund.

Currently the TTRO notice for road closure is in process and we are just waiting on the committed dates for this from SCC Highways.

 

Thank you for your patience.

 

 

We have reached Moorhouse Farm with mainline fibre and have agreement for routes covering this area, work was due to start this week with the tractor but the weather earlier in the week has delayed this. We anticipate this work will start in the next few days and we can then start on the final drops to houses over the coming weeks. We will be in touch to confirm locations and routes with each of you in turn.

 

 

We are still waiting on permission from the final land owner for this route to start work. The road crossing is complete but until we have final permission we are not able to risk starting work and then have to re route – the alternative route is complex and awkward. Hopefully this will get the ok soon and then work will commence.

 

 

Working is ongoing on the mainline route along to Smiths Farm and down to Huish Moor, with live connections working in sequence from Catford in the next week.

 

 

We have agreed a route for this section in the last week and the road crossing location from Catford has been agreed and permitted. Work should start on this section during July.

 

 

We are still planning and discussing route options for this section from Sperry Cross up, but this is looking promising and we hope to start work late July early August on this area.

 

 

As the final routes agreement from Huish North comes together, we can start planning the options to reach Clatworthy Village, again we hope to have this underway during August, but we do have a fair amount of planning work to complete for this.