Minutes:
The Chairman made the following announcements:
· Praise was given to Jaki Farrell and the young people for the noble work they did, as it has been well noted by many. The AONB were also impressed with the work the young people had carried out in the Ox drove in the Chalke Valley.
· Annual return of the electoral roll, 220,000 forms went out to homes across Wiltshire, yet only 159,000 were returned and 60,000 forms had not yet been returned. Canvassers have been going out to encourage more people to return forms.
· WW1 Tree Planting scheme – a list of parishes in our area have asked for the trees, delivery details will be circulated in due course.
· First meeting of Nadder Community Land Trust had taken place – where they had discussed work stream opportunities for local people and possible sites for Affordable Housing.
· Cllr Church made a call for more foster parents – She urged any local families that might be interested in fostering Wiltshire children to look at the information online. There were 450 children currently in care.
· Wiltshire Online – The Chairman read an update:
As residents of Alvediston may be aware, Wiltshire Council’s Wiltshire Online programme has plans to provide a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) service to premises (both residential and business) in Alvediston as part of our Contract 2 deployment in partnership with BT.
The European Commission requires that local authorities can only use public money in areas they can demonstrate there is no current, or planned (within the next three years) deployment of either standard or superfast broadband. In order to identify the areas we were allowed to invest our funds, we completed an Open Market Review which gave commercial telecom providers the opportunity to provide their current and planned footprint, the outcome of this review was our Intervention Area (the area where there is no current or planned activity).
At the time of designing the Contract 2 deployment and following the outcome of the OMR, there were no other fibre providers in the area. However, we have recently been made aware that Wessex Internet are now offering their own FTTP solution and they are considering deploying this solution in Alvediston.
Whilst this issue could not have been avoided as it is due to timing of the build plans, Wiltshire Council wants to ensure that the best way forward for the whole community is identified and therefore the planned build by BT has been paused.
The situation as we understand is that Wessex Internet has confirmed that they will be laying fibre spine in the area come what may and will connect any business to this fibre so long as they apply and are eligible for a central government Local Full Fibre Network voucher. This voucher allows an eligible business to claim £3000 towards the cost of a full fibre service. However, Wessex Internet has advised that they will only be able to provision every premises (both business and residential) within the village for their standard fibre install if they are able to sign up a sufficient number of businesses as per their current commercial model. We understand Wessex Internet are in touch with the parish council to push this message out to local businesses.
Whilst Wiltshire Council does not want to duplicate service nor hinder any commercial ventures, we must ensure that any decision we make does not inadvertently leave Alvediston residents without an FTTP service at all.
Therefore, following consideration Wiltshire Council has informed Wessex Internet that we are willing to keep the planned BT build paused until the end of September to allow them time to generate the interest needed to support their venture. Wiltshire Online will be reviewing the situation with Wessex Internet at the end of September.
Wiltshire Online hopes that this pragmatic approach will result in Alvediston receiving an FTTP service via either Wessex Internet or BT in due course.
Following the review at the end of September, Wiltshire Online will update the Parish Council and Area Board with further information.