The Chief Executive of Cheshire West and Chester Council has responded to the letter sent regarding residents’ frustration at the time taken to repair the Soot Hill landslip. The response is below, as before click on the letter to enable navigation through the pages.
The Parish Council is concerned about the prolonged closure of Soot Hill, the plans for repair, the ongoing impact on residents and local businesses and the timescales. The PC has written to the CWAC Chief Executive as outlined below. The letter has the support of Parish Councils across the Marbury ward, and comprises three pages – please click on the letter then use the navigation tools at the bottom to scroll through the pages.
30th January to 1st February, Northwich workzone is offering its first sector course of the year. It is being pitched at a Level 1 and we can assess your learner for that level upon registration
This will be a popular course with lots of Jobs within this industry and something that has been requested of us very often
For referrals/ enquiries and to determine your learners level telephone us on : 07833 236675 to register (We still have a few spaces left as at 17th January).
A temporary road closure will be in place on Senna Lane to enable utility works by Openreach.
The closure will come into force on 16th January 2023 and will be in force for a maximum of five days. It is
anticipated that the work will last for approximately 1 day.
A diversion will be in place.
The last meeting of the Parish Council was on 13 December 2022. The agenda included an item on the Freedom Fibre project.
An extract from the minutes that relates to this item is below:
“The council discussed the Freedom Fibre (FF) project to deliver high speed fibre-to-the-premises (FFTP) to a number of properties in Comberbach. There had been a great deal of activity during November when Freedom Fibre had communicated their proposals through a series of notices posted on the Locke and Fairclough estates in the village. The proposals would involve installing telegraph poles to enable the delivery of full fibre.
Representatives of the Parish Council had met with representatives of Freedom Fibre and a representative of CW&C to investigate what other options might be available instead of the erection of telegraph poles on the estates. A further investigation of the existing Openreach ducting found that this was not an option due to the poor state of repair, or non-existence of any ducting. An opportunity to use the Government’s Gigabit Voucher Scheme was still being investigated with assistance from CWAC, however, this option would require a majority of residents to sign up for the Freedom Fibre TalkTalk broadband service.
The Parish Council agreed it was neutral on this issue but was working hard to ensure there were good and timely communications to residents to enable informed decisions to be made.”
The Parish Council (PC) has held a number of discussions with representatives from Freedom Fibre (FF), Cheshire West & Chester Council (CWAC) and residents in respect of Freedom Fibre’s (FF) current plans to deliver high speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) via telegraph poles and cables. Discussions have focused on:
FF have used the Openreach (OR) duct network plans. These show the network is incomplete and / or unusable due to congestion, collapse or blockage. Additionally, any network that exists only goes as far as the kerb side, not to the properties.
At the request of the PC, FF agreed to conduct their own survey of the network to check if all or part of the network could be used instead of poles. Unfortunately, they have advised that the rod / rope survey, conducted by eight engineers across the Fairclough and Locke estates on 22 November 2022, confirmed the poor state of repair assessment. FF have no right or agreement to enhance or repair the OR ducting.
This is not commercially viable for FF. However, a meeting has been held between FF and CWAC to explore whether FF would consider providing FTTP via new ducts if it could be made more commercially viable for them. This may be possible via residents applying for government vouchers toward FTTP installation and passing those onto Freedom Fibre.
In principle, FF are open to consider this, however there are ‘feasibility’ steps that need to be taken before it can be established if it is viable including:
If established as a viable option, the PC will work with FF and CWAC to provide a further update to residents as to how this scheme would operate and set out the next steps. For more info on the scheme https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/ or see notices in the Parish notice board and website.
Whilst FF could proceed with their plans without consulting residents under their permitted development rights, they have agreed they will write to residents setting out their plans for the use of posts and overhead cables and provide them a period of time to express their opinion for or against the installation.
FF have advised they will respect what the majority of residents want them to do, including ‘walking away’. It will be imperative all residents have their voice heard and register their ‘vote’ for or against.
The Fairclough and Locke estates will have no access to the higher internet speeds that FTTP would bring until, if and when another service provider decides to invest in the infrastructure. This may still be via poles and cable, and could happen without consultation with residents under the permitted development rights. The PC have been unable to establish if any other providers, including OR, have plans to bring FTTP to the village in the foreseeable future, leaving the estates vulnerable waiting for years before another provider is prepared to take on the costs, or are forced to by the Government.
Please note, the Parish Council does not have a view for or against the FF proposals and is limiting itself to the role of working to ensure that FF and CWAC are aware of the points raised by residents and respond to them.
The next update will be issued once the ducting option has been explored further.
Freedom Fibre (FF)
FF held a Teams meeting in May for local councils, MPs and CWAC Councillors. The invitation email was sent to the Parish Clerk in April but due to incorrect spelling of Comberbach this was not received. The invitation was also sent to the Chairman and Vice Chairman. The e mail detailed the plan for full fibre but Comberbach was not included in the outline map. The Parish Council like many other Parish Councils did not log onto the May Teams presentation
The Parish Council received a copy of the slides on 24th May but the slides could not be circulated as they were marked “Private & Confidential and Commercially Sensitive.”
The slide information showed that Freedom Fibre would engage with the local community including sending letters to residents who may be affected by any groundworks. It confirmed that wherever possible they would utilise the Openreach underground network.
The Parish Council posted on the web site on 23 July the Freedom Fibre details as well in the Village News
On 31st October notices were posted to lampposts in areas where telegraph poles were to be erected under Section 5 Notice of Permitted Development, without any engagement with residents
The Parish Council wrote to Freedom Fibre and they agreed to hold a meeting which was held on 17th November.
FF confirmed that they thought letters had been sent out on 19th July, but when faced with residents denying having received any letter from Freedom Fibre, they admitted that the letters must not have been posted to residents in Comberbach regarding the erection of telegraph poles. Freedom Fibre also confirmed at the meeting that the Openreach infrastructure did not support underground connectivity due to the ducting being not built or damaged beyond repair.
They confirmed at the meeting that they would not progress the pole installation and put on hold until they had investigated further a rod and rope examination and also to provide any costs for repairing the Openreach network.
At the meeting they also confirmed that if sufficient residents did not support the project, they would withdraw the proposed installation of telegraph poles. The Locke estate at Barnton was noted where they have withdrawn their support due to residents not supporting the project and stating that their current broadband supplier contract and speeds were acceptable for their needs.
On 24th November the Parish Council has written again to Freedom Fibre to ascertain what investigations have taken place to utilise the Openreach ducting. Once a response is received the Parish Council will provide a further update.
In confirmation the Parish Council has never received any information from Freedom Fibre regarding the plans to erect telegraph poles or their proposed siting and had not been directly involved in any meeting or communication until the meeting of 17th November.
After posting notices to say that we were to hold a meeting with Freedom Fibre, a number of residents got together from both housing estates on Monday 14th November, and we attended the meeting so we could ask the questions that they raised. On Thursday 17th, the meeting was held with Freedom Fibre. It was agreed that we would reconvene with attendees from the earlier meeting to explain what was said.
Cllrs John Ryder, Sandy Cameron and Richard Chandler met with the resident representatives on Friday the 18th November to report back on their meeting with Freedom Fibre (FF) the previous afternoon.
The Friday meeting was joined by Mike Duggine CW&C Digital Infrastructure Manager
It was stressed by John Ryder that the three councillors were there to provide information given to them by FF and not to give opinion.
Mike outlined the reasons why full fibre optic cabling is going to be necessary in the future and, without getting technical, the current copper wires will not be able to cope with everything demanded of them as everything from TVs, health monitoring devices to cookers are connected to the internet and stream an increasing amount of data.
Some in the meeting said that there was no current problem with internet speeds so why do we need unsightly poles and wires for something we don’t currently need?
John then passed on the salient points made by FF:
John pointed out that Open Reach could come along at a later date and erect poles if FF have backed out, but was told by a senior Open Reach manager that it would be at least a “couple of years” before they’d likely think about it. Evidence from Barnton suggests that where an estate rejects an operator like FF, another provider will come along and erect poles without consultation.
FF said they will open their pole network to other Internet Service Providers in 2023. It is possible that where no commercial agreement can be made, “double poling” could occur but this should be rare.
Mike said that it is possible the village may qualify for a government voucher scheme and is checking on whether that’s the case. If so he would contact FF to see if they would work with the scheme. If not, then other providers could be approached, although there is no guarantee an alternative supplier will be found who would be willing to work with the scheme. The advantage of this would be more money to put towards underground ducting but even with this money, the cost of ducting to the users is likely to be significantly more than poles and wires..
If the voucher scheme becomes available, the Parish Council offered to help survey the estates to ask about likely take-up. This would be a Community led initiative
It is vital that when Freedom Fibre letter arrives, a response is fed back to them, positive or negative, by everyone who receives the letter.
The Parish Council holds a neutral position but is keen that that FF hears from everyone so we achieve a democratic result.
Parish Council Statement – Freedom Fibre Broadband
The Parish Council (PC) became aware earlier in the year that Comberbach is included in the plans for Freedom Fibre (FF) to deliver high speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) to the village. This information was shared on the website on 23 July and in the September Comberbach Village News.
It was assumed that the enhanced fibre service would be delivered within the village via the existing underground network of ducts/channels. It is now apparent that this is not the case with the notices posted around the village earlier this week alerting the PC, and the wider community, as to the intentions of FF to deliver their service via telegraph poles and overhead cables. Unsurprisingly, this has generated many questions and / or concerns amongst the PC members and wider village community since.
The PC contacted FF on Tuesday to request they send representatives to attend a public meeting with the Comberbach residents next week to answer their questions and / or concerns. Whilst FF have declined to attend a public meeting they have agreed to meet with representatives from the PC next Thursday 17th November.
A list of key points to be discussed is being drawn up based on feedback from those who have so far approached their PC representatives. The core areas we propose to cover with FF are as follows:
If residents have any further questions they would like to be considered they should get in touch with their representative on the council (list in published in the Village News and available on the Parish Council website) or send an email to the Parish Clerk (clerk@comberbach-pc.gov.uk).
Residents should be assured the PC remains committed to working with the community to establish what options are available and, in the interim have requested in our correspondence with FF that they do not progress with any works until we have had our meeting with them and then had the chance to consult with our residents as to how we wish to proceed. Additionally, the PC are making CWAC of the current situation.
Once the meeting has been held with FF the PC will provide a summary of the answers received to our questions and propose how we secure the village opinion as to the next steps.
If any members of the community have relevant expertise, knowledge or experience in dealing with matters such as those at hand (e.g. permitted rights to erect the poles, telecommunications) and would be willing to offer their support to the PC please contact the Parish Clerk.
Comberbach Parish Council
10th November 2022
Following the appearance of planning notices for new telegraph poles around the Comberbach estates the Chair of the Parish council has been in touch with the installer, Freedom Fibre, to check whether existing ducting could be used instead.
Confirmation has been received by the Parish Council from Freedom Fibre Ltd that it is not possible to use the Openreach underground infrastructure which carries existing telephone cabling to properties. This is because the Openreach network is directly buried in the ground and the cables are not encased in ducting. To build an underground network would mean digging up estates and driveways with all the disruption that would bring. The poles will be placed at strategic positions to ensure line of sight for the overhead cables. The poles will have Fibre equipment on them in most cases which will be served by overhead wires; guidelines mean cables cannot come within 2m of any properties.
Any queries can be directed to: Pole Queries Team <PoleQueries@freedomfibre.com>