Month: March 2017

An open letter from James Machpherson, SCD lead director for broadband project :

Dear Community Members

As you may well know on 16th November 2016 the Moy residents voted unanimously in favour for BT Openreach’ s proposal to install 3 new cabinets within the Moy area, promising speeds of up 80mbps once installed. This solution is to be funded through around £85K Moy Windfarm Community Benefit funds, the Better Broadband Vouchers of up to £350 being claimed by all Moy households and BT’s own investment.

Strathdearn Community Developments, the facilitator in the process, has the challenging ambition of helping to bring superfast broadband to the whole of Strathdearn! This will be a very difficult and challenging task which must be completed in a number of stages.

The Moy upgrade was effectively seen as stage 1 of our strategy for improving broadband within Strathdearn, with following stages addressing the Glenmazeran Exchange, Coignafearn, Clune and  Balvraid and so on until we have managed to achieve superfast broadband throughout the entire community!

The next stage in our plans will be to improve the broadband speeds for properties up to and surrounding the Glenmazeran exchange.

In the latter stages of 2016 we proposed to Robert Thorburn, of BT Openreach (Chief Coordinator for Highland and Islands), the idea of a community dig up to the Glenmazeran exchange, connecting fibre directly to every property en-route, with BT Openreach contributing all the cabling, ducting, installation and connections. Subject to full costing and technical specification plans, this project would have been funded through the community as well as contributions from the property owners. Furthermore, the landowners would agree not claim any wayleave on this line and allow BT access for any ongoing maintenance. Initially we were given the impression that this was a solution that BT would be agreeable to.

We had had hoped that an Openreach surveyor/ engineer would meetup in the latter stages of 2016 so we could plan the optimal route for the new cabling so that we could attain quotes from local contractors, with the ambition of a spring 2017 dig commencing but disappointingly, Openreach did not propose any meeting date, even after a number of reminders.

Having continued to press Robert Thorburn, on a fortnightly basis, Robert has explained that his reasoning for not committing to this proposal is because he would like to explore another option first which may not require quite so much community investment or input.

Robert’s latest March 2017 update is the following:

“BT is proactively looking at provision of an upgrade to both the Tomatin and  Glenmazeran Exchanges from the max headline Exchange Activate speed of 0.5mbps ( Glenmazeran) and the ADSL speed of 8mbps ( Tomatin)  to 20mbps before the end of 2018. Whilst it is anticipated that Tomatin will likely complete during 2017, plans are still being progressed on how Glenmazeran will be deployed too with this technology.   A significant amount of work and investment will be required to make this happen. At this point, I have no clear path to explain how BT intend to do this which will be clearer over the next 2/3 months.

For example – when the upgrade occurs in Tomatin – ADSL customers will automatically benefit from slightly increased speeds predominantly those in the village or within a several kms’ – it may not necessarily provide any real improvement for those heading towards Glanmazeran but will provide improved connectivity options which could be important for attracting businesses.
The same principle applies though that the further away from the exchange you are the lower the ADSL speeds will be..

Work continues on developing a FTTP and cabinet based fibre solution to support premises along the Strathdearn as we pave the way to reaching Glenmazeran.”

At this stage I would I think our best option is to wait to see what Openreach comes up with. It may be that a further community partnership will be required similar to the Moy project, but as soon as I have a proper update will let you know.

Yours faithfully,

James

It’s that time of the year when people are considering family get togethers, time off work and CHOCOLATE!!

Pop in, say hello and have a browse!

We have a lovely selection of handmade Mother’s Day Cards available in store, as well as an array of wine and chocolate.

Strathdearn Community Development Company is delighted to announce that full planning permission has been received for the construction of the new Community Hub.

This exciting development means we are a huge step forward in our vision for this much needed facility in our village.

Full details are available on the Highland Council Planning portable – planning reference 16/03510/FUL or by clicking on

https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=OBFR1FIHHHV00

Notification from Infinergy Ltd (Tom Nan Clach windfarm)

You may be aware that our contractor in conjunction with Highland Council, have put a phased road closure in place for the B9007. Starting on Monday the section from our site entrance south to the Lochindorb junction is closed for 2 weeks – except weekends.
From the 20th March the section from Lochindorb junction south to the north side of the Yule family property is closed for 4 weeks except weekends and finally from 17th to 21st April there will be partial closure from 9am until 4pm south of Lochindorb to allow surfacing on the southerly section of the B9007 passing the Yule family property.

Hopefully my description makes sense but if you have any specific access requirements during the period if you could let me know,

Many thanks

Ken Hardie
Senior Construction Manager

Infinergy Ltd
Metropolitan House
31-33 High Street
Inverness IV1 1HT
phone: +44 (0) 1463 211054
mobile: +44 (0)7775 625176
www.infinergy.co.uk