Hyde Heath Village Society

Will Openreach need to dig up my road?

Openreach will usually deliver the new fibre via exiting poles and ducts, very occasionally they may need to install new duct and poles but they can usually deliver over the existing infrastructure.

How can one know if a fibre cable would come into the house underground or overhead?

It follows the current route.

Would normal voice line come through the same fibre cable or via a copper cable? 

Customers can choose if they wish to have a Voice Over IP service or keep a copper line for their voice calls.

Fibre to the Premise will be included in the contract for those specified on the contract. If someone wants a connection later – will it be a standard connection charge for them for them or incur some cost?

The new fibre connections will bypass the cabinet, and are supplied directly from the exchange in Chesham to your local pole. If you don’t upgrade now, there may not be capacity and could require a new fibre connection from the exchange in Chesham.

If there is capacity, there will likely be a connection charge, without the benefit of funding through the Gigabit voucher scheme. 

What equipment will be provided at the end of the fibre cable - just the optical network terminal (ONT) box? 

Just a box, a bit larger than your current Master Socket. There is a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-6LKAPlEyk

Will I need a new router and if so when do I get it?

When you order service this will be sent to you from your Internet Service Provider.

Where the road/pavement/lawns/walls are dug up for the fibre cables – will Openreach make good the surfaces after the work?

Yes, the only exception is if a drive is a specialist surface such as Resin, when the individual customer will need to arrange and pay for the re-instatement

What will be the process of discussing the fibre route when there is a need (previous route is unclear or sub-optimal or crosses someone’s private land, etc.)?

With the exception of the link to someone’s home the route is as per existing and is known - it follows the current cables.

When will Openreach need to enter my home?

The project will deliver a full fibre solution from the exchange to your property, however Openreach do not enter your home when we are building the network. The final connection into your property will be done when you place an order with your Service Provider. 

Can you Fibre just to the road and then we dig up our own gardens (lead ins)?

This is possible but makes the scheme very complex. All leads in will need to have been completed and inspected before the network can be set to go live. Openreach do not recommend this approach.

Hyde Heath Village Society are looking at opportunities to further improve our broadband infrastructure throughout the village, to increase speed, reduce monthly cost and improve reliability by getting full fibre broadband to your property.

The government and Buckinghamshire County Council are offering a combined grant of £3500 per property (or £7000 if there is a business registered at the address) to install fibre cabling from the cabinet to each property. By coordinating all the properties within the village, we believe we have access to a potential of £1.4 million of free funding available for our village!!

We have kicked off an initial discussion with BT Openreach, but are in somewhat of a chicken and egg situation. Before they work out any costings, they want to know which properties are interested. We would like to include all properties in that list, to maximise the funding available through free grants.

Expressing an interest, does not commit you the upgrade. There will be a further opportunity to consider this, should the free grants not be enough to cover the upgrade.

For that reason we are seeking to coordinate all properties within the village, to explore this opportunity.

BT Openreach require us, to collect property address, postcode and landline number, and whether there is a business, charity or school at the address. In addition, we would like to collect your name and email address, in order to contact you in the future, particularly in relation to progress on this.

Survey - Register Interest

Click here to register your detail / interest

Next Phase

Once we have gathered the information, and submitted this to BT Openreach, we should obtain a quote as to the cost of implementing the solution, and we will be in a position to assess the next steps.

Our previous successes

Just as a reminder, we kicked of a campaign in 2014 to upgrade the Keepers Lane / Weedon Hill cabinet. Before the campaign we weren't even on the 2 year roadmap. However by demonstrating the combined interest, we jumped straight to the top of the list for an upgrade!

Our current infrastructure

Currently Hyde Heath enjoys fibre to the cabinet (FTTC)? However the connection from your property is still via copper cable (or in some cases, ageing aluminium - which is becoming brittle).

Recent events have shown the fragility of this cabling within Hyde Heath, how easy it is to fail and how long it can take to rectify. 

Our current speed

This offers speeds up to 80Mbps download and crucially for the likes of Zoom calls, only 20Mbps upload. Even then many people will find they are getting less than this due to poor cabling or distance for the cabinets.

Our potential speed

Ultra Fast broadband replaces this last leg of copper cabling from the cabinet to your property with optic fibre cable. Otherwise known as fibre to the property (FTTP)

This is also an opportunity to renew the infrastructure within the village.

What is the cost? What speed can I expect?

All your existing deals will still be available.

However a range of additional options will become available:

For virtually the same price, there is the option of 100Mbps download and 30Mbps £29.99. This compares with 40Mbps download and 10Mbps upload now available for £28.99.

In addition there are options of

£39.99 for 300Mbps download/49Mbps upload

£49.99 for 900Mbps download/110Mbps upload

Where are our cabinets?

We have two cabinets in Hyde Heath.

Cabinet 6, resides near the junction of Keepers Lane and Weedon Hill, and serves approximately 110 properties on Weedon Hill, Keepers Lane, 1 - 24 Walnut Way and Oakway.

Cabinet 28 resides near the junction of Brays Lane and Meadow Way and serves Brays Lane, Brays Green Lane, Chalk Lane, the rest of Walnut Way and the other properties that side of the village.

 We will also be happy to support villagers in Hyde End, should we receive enough interest.

We have some amazing news!!
 
The broadband upgrade scheme to install full fibre internet to the properties in Hyde Heath CAN be fully funded (using the government’s Gigabit voucher scheme) for FREE*

In order for this to be free, we need 53% of properties to formally commit to taking an upgraded package (approximately an additional £5 per month) for a minimum 12 month contract period (which we will hit if those who expressed interest take up the offer)

The plan is to proceed with Openreach, with what they call a "demand-led" scheme.  Openreach add a buffer of 30% to the costs for a demand-led scheme. To achieve signoff we need to hit 53% adoption across the village. Any of the 415 properties in Hyde Heath can sign up, even if they didn't register interest previously.

The demand-led scheme avoids the onerous task of setting up a Legal Entity (a Company) to sign a contract with OpenReach (and HHVS isn't a legal entity, so cannot sign the contract). We still have the ability to fall back to this option, if we don’t hit 53% signup.

Down the line, we will all have to formally sign up to the scheme with Openreach.

Survey - Register Interest

If you haven't previously registered interest, please provide your details here:

This does not commit you to taking an ultrafast broadband.

Click here to register your detail / interest

There is a requirement to improve the parking around the school - following a dangerous incident last year while a child was crossing the road.

To this end, the village society have discussed with the school the idea of installing green parking (e.g. Grasscrete) on the green space immediately outside the school. This would not be a permanent car park, simply a temporary parking space for people dropping off or collecting from school. The idea is to prevent irregular parking and better preserve the common land. It would also allow parents to park off the busy main road, and therefore avoid the need to cross with young children.

The design would be flexible, potentially taking the form of up to 15 spaces immediately outside the school. We are conscious that this is something many residents of Hyde Heath have requested for some time, but we would like to hear from anyone who might object to such an idea, in particular anyone who lives close to the school. We would also like to hear of alternative ideas to address this problem, or road safety in the village in general.

HHVS monitors incidences of fly tipping around the village, and lobbies for measures to discourage it, such as CCTV warning signs. If you come across any fly tipping, please report it to Eric Clark at flytipping@hhvs.org.uk.

With the planned expansion of Aylesbury and the building of HS2, it is likely that Hyde Heath Road and Weedon Hill will be used more and more as a rat run. In this context, HHVS has been working with Little Missenden Parish Council and Transport for Bucks (TfB), on a speeding and parking plan to improve road safety in the village. Stage one is the Permanent Vehicle Activated Sign (PVAS) – speed sign - on the green. HHVS is now discussing with TfB the installation of another PVAS at the Amersham end of the village, along with better signs and road markings to protect the school children and the residents at Rayners.

The Chiltern District Council has started preparing a new (emerging) Local Plan for Chiltern District.

What is the Emerging Local Plan?

The Local Plan will set out policies used to determine planning applications, site allocations or propose new development (e.g. housing or employment) and broader land designations (e.g. Green Belt areas).

The Emerging Local Plan will replace the adopted Core Strategy (2011) and adopted Local Plan (1997). The new (emerging) Local Plan will run from 2014 to 2036.

The Village Societies Response

The Hyde Heath Village Society has submitted a response to the Emerging Local Plan (2014-2036) Response. This is an excellent document and many thanks should go to Andrew Cordiner for producing this document.

For those interested in reading this, it may be downloaded here: Emerging Local Plan Response (2014-2036).doc

As most people are aware, mobile reception is patchy in the village, and we have received questions about improving reception.

Whilst getting a new mast may be a challenge, for those who are not aware, there are immediate solutions available to individuals to improve the situation, 

Which provider?

Firstly, personally, I would only use O2 within the village. I have no affiliation, but O2 seem to provide the best reception around the village. I expect most people already know that, so are already on O2. For this reason, the advice below relates specifically to O2, but each provider will have alternatives.

How to improve reception

Whilst there is nothing that can be done, away from your house, there are two options to improve reception within the home.

Option 1

The first and simplest option for most users, who are on a consumer O2 tariff, is to use the TuGo application from O2. http://www.o2.co.uk/apps/tu-go

This allows you to make and receive mobile calls via your wireless network in your home. This can be installed on all manner of devices, not just your phone, and on up to five devices simultaneously for the same number. The app can be installed on an IPhone, IPad, a Google Android phone, an Android tablet, a Windows 8 phone, or even a Windows 7 or above PC. The device of course needs a Wi-Fi connection. 

Google PlayStore - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=es.tid.gconnect&hl=en_GB

Apple AppStore - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tu-go/id568007896?mt=8

One issue you might face, is an inconsistent Wi-Fi signal throughout your house. If this is an issue, there are fairly simple ways to improve your Wi-Fi signal around your house, which are documented below.

Option 2

The second option, (which I use - as TuGo wasn’t available at the time), is to sign up one of your tariffs to O2 Business, and then buy an O2 BoostBox (which costs £150). The BoostBox isn’t available to users on a consumer tariff and isn’t widely publicised, but it is essentially identical to the Vodafone SureSignal (the hardware is the same). It connects to your broadband router and provides a 3G signal around your house. You provide a list of up to 32 mobile numbers, that you allow to connect through the device (although only 4 at any one time). You need a 3G phones for this to work. The other phones can be on any O2 based network (EG. O2 Consumer tariff, Tesco Mobile or Giff Gaff). I also believe, once you have the BoostBox, you can switch back to a consumer tariff, but I haven't tried this, 

I don't believe you actually need a company to sign up, just choose the non-limited company option, and make up a company name.

BoostBox links:

Support: Support

http://www.o2.co.uk/assets2/business/enterprise/documents/9807_QSG_Guide_105x105Home.pdf

http://static.o2.co.uk/www/docs/business/boostbox_qsg_guide_standard_v4_lr.pdf