Issue details
Fastershire Community Grant Scheme Approvals Q4 2020/21
This quarter has seen the first four projects
come forward for funding from the Fastershire Community Grant which
was launched in December 2020.
The four communities are very different in size, remoteness and
viability. The table below details the key information relating to
each project.
Community Participating Other Selected
premises benefitting Supplier Total Cost Required
with premises £’000 Funding
<30Mbps with <30Mbps £’000
Birley, Upper Hill
& Aulden 28 17 Full Fibre Ltd 196,610 192,637.08
Nash & Knill 24 7 Airband 149,533 137,533
Cinderford 87 497 Full Fibre Ltd 3,112,006 28,675
Northwick Park
& Draycott 78 110 Gigaclear 231,104 94,603
Total 217 631 3,689,253 453,448.08
Cinderford, being a small town, is the clear outlier and the
exercise has done more to bring the viability of the area to the
attention of suppliers than plug any major funding gap. However, it
is unlikely that many similar schemes to Cinderford will come
through the grant and the other three are more representative of
the type of projects that will come through in the future.
Despite the disparity in cost vs benefit, each project passed the
Value for Money test detailed in the Fastershire Broadband Strategy
and was therefore approved.
These early projects have successfully proved the concept of the
Fastershire Community Grant, enabling the project to facilitate
superfast connectivity to 848 hitherto STD (Still To Do) premises,
nearly 10% of the residual premises that are left without a
contracted solution.
Decision type: Non-key
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Notice of proposed decision first published: 07/04/2021
Decision due: 6 April 2021 by Assistant director Corporate Support (Historic)
Contact: Natalia Silver, Service Director - Corporate Services Email: nsilver@herefordshire.gov.uk Tel: 01432260732.
Decisions