Update on Grants & Progress

The Welsh Assembly Government Broadband Grants Team have informed us that they will be sending out the Offer Letters on Friday 23rd March so all successful applicants should receive a letter on Monday or Tuesday of the following week.

Anyone who is receiving this newsletter and has not made a Grant Application should do so immediately as the deadline for grant applications is 31st March 2018. There is less than 10 days remaining to do so.

Sub-Groups

Wayleaves
Wayleaves are progressing with the majority in hand, with just a few left to complete.

Route Map
The Route Map on the website is up to date, and will be constantly changing showing the routes that have been trenched and ducted as they change colour from blue to red  (under construction) and green when complete.

Road Crossings and Services
To date. 10  road crossings have been completed. Bryn Richards who has been in attendance for each one has stated that the directional drilling has gone very well with excellent accuracy. Gary and Daryl of Thompsons Directional Drilling have been great to work with and the guys from Thomas Bros have been extremely helpful in assisting them as required. This phase is now complete. 

Volunteers.

Shipping Container Conversion

Lots of activity took place this past weekend with the lifting of the shipping container to level the ground and add 6inches of gravel to ensure good drainage. Enormous thanks go to Chris Walford and Dave Phillips who also dug the trench around the car park to the Village Hall to install  the ducting and electrical supply to the container.  Chris has also cut the door opening into the end of the container and welded in a new door and frame, so secure it has 5 locking bolts. This was followed on Tuesday with the placing of the container back onto the gravelled base with the pipework for the ducting and electrical supply neatly in place inside the container. Jim Dunk and Glyn Williams are now in the process of insulating, and fitting out the container ready for the racking to be installed.  Great work guys.

Chambers

Our first chamber was installed on Thursday 8th March at the entrance to Fairwater Farm. The hole was very kindly dug by Danut and Salih, two of Paul Magor's employees from Haygrove, Rhymney Vally Nursery and a great job they did too.  Jim and Carina Dunk along with Glynn Williams completed the job,  adding 6 inches of gravel, feeding around 14 ducts into the chamber, backfilling the hole once the chamber was in place and securing the cover. Jim and Glyn then went up to the "road crossing" further up the field after Danut and Salih had further dug out the ground to expose the pipe running under the road and fed the 4 large ducts through to the other side of the road ready for the continuation of the trench digging and duct laying.

Router

We are expecting a delivery of 100 routers ready for installation along with the rest of the required materials to arrive by end of March

B4RN Visit

So far around 5 people will be visiting  B4RN on 28^th March in Lancashire for their "Show and Tell Day". If anyone else is interested in going, please contact  jim.dunk@myfi.wales

Date for next Meeting
The next meeting will be on Thursday 29th March 2018 in the Village Hall at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.