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The Painswick Beacon Vol. 26 No.11 February 2004 Broadband at last! High speed 'always on' Internet access for Painswick this month A well attended and very positive public meeting organised by the Parish Council in the Town Hall heard two rival service providers commit to setting up wireless broadband systems in Painswick and surrounding villages. Even though the BT Holy Grail of 500 registrations of interest required was still a couple of hundred registra- tions short, both Loop Scorpio and Node Broadband said they were ready to start offering competitive services to BT Broadband immediately and required far fewer subscribers than BT to make a service viable. The Node Broadband service, which is based on a satellite link to a central node and wireless links to individual subscribers within a couple of miles, would be viable with as few as fifteen subscribers, making it potentially attractive to smaller communities such as Cranham and Sheepscombe. Peter Cartwright of Gloucester based Loop Scorpio said that the company had been actively checking Painswick’s pulse for the past twelve months. Now that its first three wireless broadband networks in Ledbury, Highnam and Newent have bedded down, he was ready to make the necessary investment in Painswick. Like Node, Loop Scorpio will use ‘line of sight’ wireless relays to link subscribers to a central node, but the link to the Internet will be via a BT leased line from Gloucester with the central node at the Falcon. The not very impressive antenna - like a miniature fluorescent tube- was duly attached to the top of the Falcon's TV aerial on Wednesday 2st January. The BT leased line is scheduled for this week and the The Loop Scorpio antenna service should open before the end of February. being attached to the top of the Falcon's TV mast. For more details of the public meeting and the broadband services on offer, please turn to page 10. meanwhile... Hold the line for three weeks whilst we try to connect you... Forget high speed Internet access! 'It was particularly serious for me,' com- as the next message I received was on the Twenty BT customers in the centre of mented Paul, 'because I lost bookings for 22nd January 2004, a day after the line Painswick cut off for three weeks or more two Painswick Blues nights which I was was repaired!' without a phone would probably have promoting at the Painswick Centre. Not Roy contacted BT on numerous oc- settled for a couple of moderately nippy to mention the New Years Eve Party at casions and was given varying dates of carrier pigeons for communicating with the same venue.' He is now seeking com- repair, all of which came and went, with- the outside world whilst they waited for pensation. out any action. BT to repair the fault. It was around 11 pm For the Town Hall, the situation was even Roy also discovered that the BT 57 on Boxing Day that subscribers linked to worse: the line was not restored until 2st answer phone service continued to accept a telephone pole in George Court - includ- January. Commenting on the problems messages for the Town Hall, even though ing the Town Hall and The Shetland Shop that the Parish Council suffered during there was no means of retrieving them. - found they had been cut off. and the extremely poor service offered by 'I believe this could have had serious re- Paul Gray of The Shetland Shop said that BT, Council Clerk, Roy Balgobin, said. percussions, as many urgent messages are he reported the fault to BT the next day 'When I returned to work after Christmas, left on the answer phone, including funeral and was told that it would be dealt with by I discovered that the phone line was dead. arrangements and matters concerned with the following weekend. The next weekend Luckily I had my mobile phone and was health and safety.' came and went, as did the next. Still no able to contact BT who assured me the Finally, to add insult to injury, BT sign of a BT engineer, despite daily phone problem was minor and that it would be initially offered the Parish Council £6.04 calls (from a mobile phone) and promises rectified within days. They agreed to set compensation! After some exasperated that the repair was 'in hand'. up a Text message service to keep me protests, this was upped to £49. Eventually, the line was restored, after updated on the progress of the BT fault. three weeks, on 6th January. However, the system is somewhat flawed In this month's Beacon... 2004 Village Quiz is on... SNAP go the busses... Mission to Seafarers sex appeal... The Broadband meeting and the truth about orthogonal frequency division multiplexing... Painswick WI, the naked truth... The Dog Tree... Musical Matinees... Those £50 parking fines... Lusting ladies... Skip it... A bridge too far... What bird? PARISH COUNCIL NEWS - by Leslie Brotherton PARISH COUNCIL and lack of consultation in consideration was necessary. Ann Daniels felt there was of the contentious Edge telecommunica- no secrecy attached to the present system Broadband tions mast last year, and urged change of and that it would not be practicable to deal The Chairman, Terry Parker, reported procedures. Mrs Luke suggested that “In with making decisions upon each applica- that about 35 people, many not having view of the Parish Council’s intention to tion as well as dealing with other agenda attended a previous meeting, came to the seek ‘Quality Council’ status we are sure business as well. open meeting to further discuss Broadband that you will agree that the Councils pro- Alan Shearer moved a motion, seconded on 6th January. He pointed out that two cedures should be seen to be fair and open by David Hudson that the existing sys- companies were present at the meeting, to scrutiny by those who you represent. tem be continued and that applications Loop Scorpio and Node Broadband. (See There is an opportunity to address this considered ‘difficult’ by the Chairman separate report.) issue by adopting an appropriate resolu- immediately lead to his convening a tion in order to move towards more open public meeting to consider other views. Web Site for the Parish Council government: The motion was carried with the sole dis- The Clerk, Roy Balgobin, reported that the ) Planning applications (or pre-applica- sention of the Chairman of the Council, District Council’s ‘web-mistress’ who was tion consultations) be considered in public Terry Parker. to assist in the creation of a site for this by a sub-Committee of the Parish Council The Council decided to appoint the Vice- Council was resuming work in the coming and the public to be allowed to address the Chairman of the Planning Committee, week, but completion was not expected meeting. currently Tony Crook, to be the automatic until about Easter. 2) The Parish Council will ensure that substitute for a ward councillor where a While the many months of delay were residents of any ward have representation planning application precluded his/her regretted it was agreed not to seek zero- on any matters where their Parish Council- acting on behalf of the community repre- cost alternatives at an earlier date as these lor is unable to carry out their duties for sented; e.g. he would act on behalf of Edge would also contain potentially intrusive reasons such as a declared interest. residents with regard to any application advertising. 3) Plans for applications to be available to erect a communications mast on land for a minimum of three days before the owned by Martin Slinger or his family. Clattergrove road junction with A46 sub-Committee at the Parish Office. David Hudson reported a meeting hav- This would enable matters of public ing been arranged with GCC offers to interest to be discussed openly and give PLANNING COMMITTEE discuss the dangers of this junction on residents access to plans without neces- 11th February. sitating a trip to Ebley Mill.” Communications Mast - Edge Fred Russell, who attended the meeting, Other correspondence was received, Unfortunately the Beacon will be pub- read out a letter to the Council suggesting from Douglas Robinson Chairman of lished a couple of days after the event that the 30mph speed limit would be bet- the Conservation Society, and one from but it was noted that, in anticipation of ter commencing further from the village Stewart Ward who felt that the proposals resubmission of a planning application, a than its present partially concealed loca- outlined in the Beacon would meet the mock-up mast would be erected in Edge tion behind a bend in the road. Whilst needs. on a site close to that of the failed applica- the introduction of the 40mph limit had Terry Parker went on to urge that there tion, in order to trial test for signal around reduced speed a little it could usefully be be the maximum openness in all the Coun- the valley. As this would also provide much further from the village. Members cil’s affairs, including planning matters. A an opportunity to more accurately judge noted the fatality involved in a car crash lengthy discussion ensued in which David the height and, hence, impact of such a earlier in the week at Paradise, and the Hudson identified that the only alternative structure as many councillors as possible 50mph limit remaining within the several to the present ‘brown envelope’ system undertook to visit the site on Tuesday 3rd bends at that point. appeared to be a twice-monthly meeting February at 11.00am.

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