Communities are well informed

I thought I’d update your readers on the Gigaclear ultrafast rural broadband public meetings that were held in Kingscliffe, Helpston and Barnack recently.

The meetings were very well attended (about 85 people at each) and gave the communities i nvolved a good introduction to Gigaclear’s plans. They brought home to people what a golden opportunity this represents for the areas involved - essentially we are being offered a brand-new 21st-century communications network that will give us not only unlimited broadband at speeds of up to 1Gb/s up and down right now, but a robust and future-proof system with the potential for many decades of hassle-free upgrades as the technology becomes available - something our current internet delivery using the legacy system of copper telephone wires can never do.

It means that from being part of the neglected 5% with the worst internet in the country, we will leapfrog even the most connected city-dwellers, transforming the way we live and work and adding greatly to the desirability of the area to live in.

Gigaclear intends to build a state-of-the-art fibre optic broadband network delivering true fibre-to-the-premises ( FTTP) connectivity to two areas - Kingscliffe and Apethorpe and what they are calling Peterborough Vale, which comprises the villages of Ashton, Bainton, Barnack, Helpston, Marholm, Pilsgate, Southorpe, Tallington and Ufford. It will mean our internet will be more than capable of dealing with whatever demands are placed on it in the future.

Peterborough City Council fully endorses the initiative, which is the first step in linking the CityFibre network currently being installed in Peterborough to the surrounding rural areas.

For most people this was the first time they had heard of Gigaclear, but the company has been rolling out FTTP solutions to neglected rural communities since 2010.

In order to satisfy their investors and thrive as a viable business, Gigaclear maintain a strict policy of only building a network when 30% of an area’s potential subscribers have signed up to their service .

Locals like myself are now starting to engage with people we know to urge them to spread the word and sign up - the sooner we pass the 30% threshold the sooner the network will be up and running. Gigaclear estimate the first connections will go live 4 months after the critical mass has been achieved, and have said that should enough people sign up fairly quickly we can expect to go live around November/December this year.

For more information visit www.gigaclear.com or an information site set up by local volunteers at ultrafastpeterboroughvale.info. Anyone interested in getting out and explaining to friends and neighbours the benefits of signing up, please get in touch at support@ultrafastpeterboroughvale.info. We are also on Twitter (@PboroVale) and Facebook (facebook.com/ pborovale).

TOWN HALL Hugh Hughes Maxey Road

Helpston urban shopping centre providing all everyday needs.

What a contrast councillors and council officials will discover should they venture there now, preferably in daytime as they certainly won’t feel comfortable after dark.

Most of the shops have become open all hours outlets for alcohol and fast food with the attendant problems of litter and rowdiness. Formerly well-maintained family homes are in multiple occupation and this overcrowding has resulted in excessive numbers of parked cars and vans obstructing footpaths and damaging grass verges.

Currently, at least twelve applications to build side, rear and first floor extensions on such houses are being considered by the council’s planning department. Getting planning permission seems to be little more than a formality.

It is all very well to make the city centre more attractive to shoppers and promoters of the “night-time economy”. The council should wake up to the needs and rights of respectable council-tax paying citizens whose homes are just outside this favoured area, whose environment is being degraded and whose interests it ignores.

David Lennox Grimshaw Road

Peterborough