Good news for local broadband – the first bit of the Village Networks broadband for our hills and valleys has gone live.  We hope to deliver a 20mbs service to people in Stonor around the end of November and Russells Water and Britwell Hill in December.  I explain how below in a construction update.  We now need some help from local people.

Are you an accountant?
We have two offers to cash flow the start up phase so work can go ahead.  We have set up a company limited by guarantee ‘Connecteight Limited’ (the structure often used by sports etc clubs for non-profit endeavours) to receive funds.  We are seeking help from a local accountant on the best way to manage this, VAT etc.  One of those things that is easy if you are expert, but baffling if not.  We can pay someone but wondered if there was a volunteer from the local population.  Please drop me a line william@cankfarm.com
Construction update

Further to my blog post of 27 September  SODC have confirmed that the little pole in the deer park does not need planning permission and Historic England have said that’s ok with them.  The fibre to Stonor Park has now been turned on (‘lit’ as they say) and fibre and power will be run up the hill in w/c 7 November.   From the deer park pole Village Networks plan to send the signal down into Stonor Village to a prominent building and then relay it along the village from there to individual houses.  If you have such a building (a barn say or tall house with a decent view along the village), please get in touch.
We are waiting for the final paperwork from the police to put equipment onto their Britwell Hill antennas, from where Village Networks will relay the signal to local communities.