Annual General Meeting of B4RN for Casterton held at Holy Trinity Church, Casterton on Monday 4 th September 2017 at 1900hrs.

Transcription

1 Annual General Meeting of B4RN for Casterton held at Holy Trinity Church, Casterton on Monday 4 th September 2017 at 1900hrs. 1). Those attending: Richard Murray (Chair); Marjorie Murray (Hon. Secretary); Richard Witt (Hon. Treasurer); Michael Bryant; Chris Benson; Chris Dodd; Pippa Hall; Catherine Round; Cath Wilman; David McAuley; Ken Humphris; Graham Keeler; Gary Mawdsley; James Mawdsley; Pat Brache; Annette Benson; Terry Simpkin. 2). Introduction and welcome: Richard Murray welcomed everybody to the meeting. 3). Apologies for absence: Received from David Ellwood, Duncan Hamlett; Ron Bulman; Paul Chambers; Gill Sykes; John and Elizabeth Makinson. 4). Summary of activities Feb Sept and matters arising: Richard Murray presented his Annual Report. Casterton villagers met in February 2016 at Casterton Golf Club, by kind invitation of Peter and Ruth Makinson, to listen to presentations from John Hamlett and David Ryall (B4RN Ltd) regarding the Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) network of hyper fast fibre being built in north Lancashire and south Cumbria. Prior to this, a preliminary meeting had been held between major landowners in Casterton where they expressed support for such a project in Casterton. With support from the sixty-four people present, it was decided to raise the necessary funding to enable the B4RN network to be built in Casterton, and to provide a core fibre optic network link from Leck onwards to Barbon, Middleton, Dent and beyond. A B4RN for Casterton Committee of volunteers was formed to carry the project forward, properly constituted: its purpose, to deliver the network to the boundary of all properties in Casterton and enable service to be taken by those households that wished to receive it. It was recognised that the Committee required some funds of its own to carry out this task and 4, was raised from a Garden Party at Casterton Grange, two contributions from the Casterton Trust Fund and personal donations. It has been used to buy tools necessary to build the fibre duct network across the parish, place routers

2 in 82 properties, repair any damage done to properties during this process, and for the Committee to carry out its lawful administrative business. The amount raised for building the network itself, through purchase of shares or a loan to B4RN Ltd, was 92,500. Every property within the parish was visited by the Secretary regarding participation in our project. Sixty-nine percent of them agreed to be connected to the network and all, except two home owners, discussed where the router should be placed in their home: the greater majority signed up to be a Member of B4RN for Casterton. Those villagers who did not wish to consider taking the B4RN service had ducting laid to their property boundary so that they could take service in the future. However, the volunteer network established in the village over the past eighteen months cannot be expected to accept new requests to dig in ducting across people s gardens to their property, as before: they will have to carry out this preparatory work themselves before they can get connected. The duct network was built mostly during the summer and autumn of 2016 under the direction of Duncan Hamlett. After obtaining Wayleave from every land owner - save two - for ducting to be laid in trenches across their land, he brought together a team of 3-5 villagers that enabled duct to be rolled out on the ground surface before either local land owners or contractors placed it into the ground. The hub of the network, or cabinet, was placed on Sedbergh Casterton School property, because of security and ease of access in case of emergency. Seven road crossings were required that were created by drilling under roads and placing the duct in conduits: Tony Swidenbank from Kendal did this work very successfully. In addition, three road crossings necessitated open cuts across a road surface: two of these were in North Heads Lane and done under licence by B4RN Ltd; one across the A683 was done at the same time as services were dug into Folly Farm with cooperation from MK Barn Conversions, Sedbergh. One road crossing of North Heads Lane was the consequence of a land owner refusing to grant Wayleave for one property to receive service: this cost the village about Only one property owner in Casterton village had refused Wayleave for duct to be laid across his garden to allow other villagers to take service: an alternative route was found. Properties were all connected to the network during the last twelve months. Richard Murray was helped in this by two volunteers from outside the village, Frank Brown from Burton-in-Lonsdale and Chris Hall from Arkholme, and four

3 from within Casterton, Chris Benson, Marjorie Murray, Tony Watson, and Dave Bartlett. At the same time, the spur from Barbon Fell House to Bullpot, Gale Garth and Smithy House was laid by Tony Swidenbank in dreadfully wet conditions, and the duct network rebuilt around Fell Garth farm on the Whelprigg estate under the direction of Nick Hall from B4RN Ltd. Once duct had been connected to properties, fibre was blown and spliced to routers by B4RN Ltd staff. Whilst Frank Brown, Chris Conder and Pat Close did most of this work initially, Nick Hall and his team were trained in these skills latterly and this improved the efficiency of the build considerably. In total, 10.5km of 12mm core and 38.5km of 2mm spur fibre was blown in Casterton Parish. The final stage, patching each individual connection into the cabinet, was carried out by B4RN Ltd. technicians. Only one locality has yet to be connected, Chapel Garth. This will be done by Steve Wilman and volunteers during the autumn of This B4RN network build has been completed only with the help and persistence of all fifty-odd volunteers living in Casterton and our friends in neighbouring villages within the Lune Valley. It could not have got off the ground initially without the active support of all land owners and farmers in Casterton - except two! Our project has taken only 18 months from start to finish, through the support received from the different sector Managers at B4RN Ltd, Tom Rigg, Dave Ryall and Nick Hall, and the invaluable information and support freely given by Chris Conder. Finally, without the support of the B4RN for Casterton Committee - raising essential funds, managing the entire project within its Constitution, problem solving, physical work digging in all weathers - Casterton would not have the high quality broadband service it now enjoys. A very big thank you to all concerned. Graham Keeler raised several issues; a) Was there a detailed record of the network build in Casterton? The reply, that such record were held by B4RN Ltd. as a registered utility provider; b) Was the core network route marked as it crossed fields? The reply, that orange markers had been placed where ducting had been laid under fences, hedges, and walls; c) Was there a network map showing where fibre was laid across properties in Casterton? The reply, that this was an obligation and duty of every property owner to record, on paper, where duct had been laid and this record should be attached to the Property Deeds.

4 d) Would the village consider recording the achievement of building the B4RN network formally? The reply, that it may be considered. Ken Humphris raised the issue of repairing the tarmac adjacent to Laitha Lane. The reply, that the work would be carried out using funds under the control of the Committee. 5). Treasurer's report and matters arising. Richard Witt, Hon. Treasurer, presented his report. The Network Build The offer to residents to buy shares or lend money to B4RN Melling had an excellent response. The original target was set at around 70k and actually in excess of 91k was eventually raised. B4RN for Casterton had no financial input into this process other than through publicising the opportunity and explaining the process and the benefits to residents. B4RN for Casterton Income Generation The committee identified that if it could raise some funds then it would be able to assist in the delivery of the programme and speed up the process of installation. With this in mind a summer fun day was organised with a silent auction running alongside it. This resulted in 616 from the fun day activities, 1095 raised from the auction and donations totalling 250. In addition to this income two applications were made to the Casterton Community Trust for 500 both of which were approved. A grant of 9950 was also awarded from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority through its Sustainable Development Fund. However this was paid to B4RN as part of a number of grants made to B4RN Melling by the Authority. B4RN for Casterton had no access to this funding however it provided Melling with the confidence that there was sufficient funding to deliver the whole of the Casterton scheme. It also encouraged them to consider refunding some of the expenditure that had already been incurred by B4RN Casterton volunteers. Refund of Expenses Duncan Hamlett had carried out a significant amount of work on the network and these expenses were refunded once the committee had the funds to do this. However B4RN Melling agreed that these costs were directly related to the installation of the network and agreed to refund them as well as some

5 stationery costs to support the establishment of the group and the promotion of the share and loan scheme. The group received a refund of 1,518 for expenses incurred. The total income received was 4,479 including the refund from B4RN Melling. Expenditure The repayment of invoices and receipts for materials, equipment, tools, stationery, repairs to damaged properties that occurred during installation were paid from the income. Two payments totalling 300 were made to cover the B4RN connection fee for David and John Metcalfe in recognition of the work they carried out and the support in providing access over their land to enable the installation of the core network. It was agreed by the committee that a contribution would be paid for the establishment of the web site and for the domain name maintenance for a five year period of 282. In total the expenditure amounted to 3,627 Balance There remains a total of 851 in the B4RN for Casterton account held with Nat West. There were no questions of the Treasurer. 6). Newsletter and website. Michael Bryant, newsletter editor, presented his report. Early on, the Committee agreed to have two main channels of communication to keep the community informed about the progress of the project, a website to serve as a reference source and a newsletter delivered by to chart the progress stage by stage and alert people to significant issues. Gary Mawdsley (who has been closely associated with the project since its inception) registered a domain name, b4rncasterton.co.uk, and commissioned a local web designer, Louisa Biggins, who was working for him at the time, to

6 design the basic structure of a website for us. Thanks to Gary and Louisa for those contributions. Due to work commitments, Louisa was not able to offer continuing support so I took over the website with a remit to manage the content and tweak the design as needed. I also started the project newsletter using the Tiny Letter platform (as used by B4RN Melling) and have edited and managed the production of the newsletter since its first issue in April The newsletter has been the primary means of showing the local community how the project has been progressing, with stories about current developments, some technical discussion and occasional alerts about special issues. For much of the project's life the frequency of newsletters has been weekly. The newsletter content has mostly been derived from contributions by Marjorie and Richard Murray and myself, along with special items from others along the way. We've tried to spice up the stories with plenty of photographs many of which can be attributed to Marjorie. We're grateful to all those who have written articles or submitted photos used either on the website or in the newsletter. From the start we have seen both the website and the newsletter as parochial media serving primarily our own community. The newsletter subscriptions have hovered around the 110 mark and we currently have 113 subscribers, mostly local plus a smattering of people who follow our fortunes from afar. As the project heads towards its conclusion we have been thinking about what to do in the future. Our current intention is to retain the website as a reference resource for the next five years and to preserve the archive of newsletters in some permanent form. 7). Election of Committee: David Ellwood intimated that he wished to stand down: thus a vacancy was available to fill. The Meeting decided that this would not be necessary and reelected those currently in post nem con. The B4RN for Casterton Committee for 2017/18: Richard Murray; Marjorie Murray; Richard Witt; Michael Bryant; Ron Bulman; Chris Dodd; Chris Benson.

7 8). Celebration with Barbon and Middleton: completion of projects: The organisers of the B4RN project for these two villages had intimated that they would like to share a celebration event in Barbon Village Hall with Casterton when their own projects had been completed. A provisional date of May 2018 had been suggested, and everybody - whether a B4RN member or not - was to be invited. 9). Future of B4RN for Casterton. All participants took part in a detailed discussion regarding the future of the B4RN for Casterton Committee. It was recognised that the Committee had achieved its Constituted objectives and could be wound down once the Chapel Garth build had been completed. A core group of volunteers could remain to act as a link between Casterton and B4RN Ltd. since B4RN Ltd owned the network and were responsible for its maintenance - just like any other utility provider. In the future, housing developers could liaise with B4RN for Casterton volunteers who had local knowledge of the B4RN network in the village: similarly, new purchasers of houses in Casterton who wished to take the B4RN service but whose present owners had not participated in the current project. In these cases, B4RN for Casterton would act in an advisory role and suggest how these properties could be connected to the network. Pippa Hall proposed that the B4RN for Casterton Committee should be wound down, once its outstanding commitments had been completed, seconded by Terry Simpkin. The proposal was carried nem con. 10). Any other business. No item was raised for discussion under Any Other Business. The Meeting closed at 2010hrs.

8 Extraordinary General Meeting of B4RN for Casterton held at Holy Trinity Church, Casterton on Monday 4 th September 2017 at 1945 hrs. (The meeting was delayed by 25 minutes because the AGM overran the time allocated) 1). Those attending: Richard Murray (Chair); Marjorie Murray (Hon. Secretary); Richard Witt (Hon. Treasurer); Michael Bryant; Chris Benson; Chris Dodd; Pippa Hall; Catherine Round; Cath Wilman; David McAuley; Ken Humphris; Graham Keeler; Gary Mawdsley; James Mawdsley; Pat Brache; Annette Benson; Terry Simpkin. 2). Introduction and purpose of meeting. Richard Murray asked this meeting to consider the outcome of the discussion held at the Annual General Meeting and give formal approval to the proposal. 3). Open discussion: future of B4RN for Casterton and implement decision from the AGM. Pippa Hall proposed that the B4RN for Casterton Committee should be wound down, once its outstanding commitments had been completed, seconded by Terry Simpkin. There was no further discussion and this proposal was carried nem con. The new Committee for 2017/18 accepted this decision and agreed to implement it. 4). Any other business. No other business was discussed and the meeting closed at 2047hrs.