Notices

Wessex Internet – Work on Church Street

Everyone in the village should be aware that Wessex Internet are doing work in the village to install a high-speed, reliable, full fibre broadband network to every property. This is part of the Government’s Rural Gigabit Connectivity Program to provide full fibre to rural communities. £800m of taxpayers’ money has been committed with the aim of connecting a total 312,000 rural homes and businesses across the country to full fibre.

To date the work to lay the fibre into Winterbourne Stoke has been across Druid’s Lodge farmland and has caused little or no inconvenience. However, on 27 January major work started on Church Street with excavations on both sides of the road. This has made access into the village and into some properties difficult.

Wessex Internet applied to Wiltshire Council to conduct roadworks on Church Street and those works were approved. Unfortunately Wiltshire Council did not inform the Parish Council and so we have all been rather surprised by the extent of the work. The work has been licensed from 27 January to 7 February.

The teams laying the fibre have encountered a number of issues. Church Street is very narrow with no pavements. Therefore, in order to do the work, the teams have had to dig up the road. As the fibre has to go both sides of the road, both sides have been excavated. The work on the left-hand side of Church Street as you approach the A303 is due to be complete by the end of today (Wednesday 29 January) which should ease the situation.

The amount of rain, and the subsequent high ground water levels, have meant that the installation could not be made along the grass verges, where they exist, or along the drainage channels. Usually such work would be done in the summer when the drainage channels are dry, but such is the scale of the program, that the timelines do not allow for this. The good news is that full-fibre internet should be available from Spring 2025.

Concerns have been expressed to the Parish Council regarding the state of the road, paths and driveways after the work has been completed. The teams laying doing the work take photographs of the sites before, during and after excavation, and again once repairs have been completed. The aim is to leave the sites in as good or better condition than they were found. Anyone with concerns about their property should contact Wessex Internet on 0333 240 7997.

Winterbourne Stoke Parish Council