Just a quick update on the status of the “Two Gates Lane/Bellingdon” Ultrafast community project (not to be confused with the “Cholesbury/The Lee/Asheridge etc” project that you may have seen discussed on the Grapevine.
- If you have not yet PLEDGED your voucher please do so ASAP – time is running out! Instructions on how to pledge (with pictures) are here.
- Once you’ve pledged you should receive an email from gigabit.vouchers@notifications.service.gov.uk to CONFIRM your voucher. This locks in the funding and is VITAL. There are instructions (with pictures) on how to do this here.
- If you have pledged and confirmed your voucher, thank you, there’s nothing more for you to do at the moment. Please don’t pledge again if you’ve already done it – duplicates are deleted.
Even if you’re happy with your broadband speeds, please spare a thought for your neighbours who might not have as good a connection as you and/or consider the value that ultrafast broadband might add to your property.
Some background information
After 6 months of back and forth, for which we have Tony Orr’s unending patience to thank, the project was initially costed, from afar, by Openreach, on a certain number of properties – a good number of which were either non-existent or duplicated.
This led to an extremely high initial cost for the project. Subsequently Openreach removed a number of the properties from the project scope, but did not have time to re-cost the project before the funding window ends – 31st March.
This leaves us in a situation where we need everybody who can sign up to do so. The additional funding we were hoping for from Bucks council has all been allocated, and the pot is empty.
The bottom line is, we are currently over £50,000 short, more if you count those who have pledged but not confirmed their vouchers.
So please, pledge and/or confirm your voucher as soon as you can. It could just make the difference.