Agenda and draft minutes

It was proposed and seconded that Councillor Kim Snape be appointed as Chairperson. 

Councillor John Dalton. 

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

No declarations of any interests were received.

The previously circulated scoping document is enclosed for reference. 

Members considered the scope of the inquiry and noted that it was envisaged that the inquiry would make its recommendations before the end of the municipal year. 

An additional desired outcome was discussed: To make recommendations in line with the Council’s Digital Strategy. 

Decision: The scoping document be noted and updated with the additional desired outcome. 

Gemma Johnson and Sean McGrath from Lancashire County Council will deliver a presentation about Superfast Broadband in Chorley. 

Andy Swindell from BT will also be in attendance / give a presentation.

Gemma Johnson, Project Manager and Nick Kershaw, Project Officer from Lancashire Superfast Broadband delivered a presentation. 

Superfast Lancashire was collaboration between Lancashire County Council (LCC), British Telecom (BT), Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool Councils. 

LCC had secured around £37 million of Public Sector Investment to intervene in ‘white’ areas (in additional to commercial rollout).  A ‘white’ area was defined as having minimal coverage and open market review failure. 

Contract One of the Superfast Lancashire programme consisted of 21% of the fibre rollout.  67% was BT/Openreach commercial fibre rollout and 9% was other operators’ high speed broadband services.  This left 3% remaining. 

Contract 2, referred to as the Superfast Extension Programme (SEP) would deliver a further 2% to achieve 99% coverage, leaving 1%.  This final 1% would be addressed through future plans such as Gainshare Advance, and only when demand was identified.

There were main three types of technology used by BT:

1.         Copper ADSL & ADSL2+ - Up to 20Mbps downstream and up to 2Mbps upstream.

2.         FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) - Up to 80Mbps downstream and up to 20Mbps upstream.

3.         FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) - Up to 330Mbps downstream and up to 30Mbps upstream

Superfast Lancashire enabled deployment to the final third of Lancashire that was not commercially viable for operators.  By March 2016 it was planned that 97% of Lancashire homes and businesses would have access to broadband speeds above 24mbps, and 99% by March 2018.  The 97% was achieved by June 2016.  It was not cost effective to use public money to enable some rural areas. 

In Phase One (Lancashire wide) 137,007 premises, 9,000+ eligible businesses (in the ‘white’ area) and 100+ business sites had access to Superfast Broadband.  454 Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) had received business support related to the exploitation of Superfast Broadband access and 934 structures had been built and were providing service. 

Work started in September 2016 on the Superfast Extension Project (SEP).  There had been an additional £7.6m in external funding for this project which was expected to conclude by the end of December 2017.  More than 11,000 extra homes would have access to fibre broadband through the project.  The SEP would be more expensive as a result of delivery in the hardest to reach areas involving more build and use of Fibre to the Premise (FTTP). 

These hardest to reach areas would benefit from Gainshare Advance.  This was revenue Lancashire County Council was entitled to from BT under the contract in relation to connections above 20%.  The initial estimate had been £6 million, but modelling had been made in relation to £4m due to a value for money assessment, whereby the £2m remains unallocated at this time.

A consultation had recently been undertaken with providers to highlight areas still to be covered through commercial rollout.  BT was modelling in white areas and LCC and BDUK would review this.  BT would sell access to their network to other providers, where Virgin had a closed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.SFB.5

Recommendations will considered by the Task Group. 

Potential recommendations for Superfast Lancashire

1.         To have discussions with Virgin about the current issues in Buckshaw, Rivington and White Coppice and encourage them to provide Superfast.

2.         To highlight the issues of new estates not having Superfast from the outset with Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK).

3.         To provide hints and tips on resolving broadband issues, including residents speaking to their own provider first before speaking to other providers and not placing electrical devices next to the router etc for distribution to Councillors and Town/Parish Councils. 

4.         To utilise different technologies available to provide Superfast Broadband to white areas.

Potential recommendations for BT

To update the call centre operative information in regard to Superfast Broadband accessibility, particularly around Wheelton, to avoid no further distress to residents who enquire going forward. 

Potential recommendations for Chorley Council

1.         To consider methods of encouraging new properties to have access to Superfast from the outset. 

2.         To liaise with BT about new developments, both residential and commercial.   

3.         To lobby Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) to give broadband the same status as utilities.

4.         To raise awareness with the public:

·                That the service would not upgrade automatically – there was a need to order Superfast broadband from their provider.

·                That residents should only be charged for the speed they actually receive. 

5.         To support the Council’s ongoing program of training for older residents on the Borough on the use of technology and the internet. 

6.         To consider the Council taking over the laying of cables within the town centre to facilitate town centre Wi-Fi in the line with the Digital Strategy / Town Centre Masterplan.

7.         To work with the Combined Authority through the Digital Lancashire project to implement these recommendations.