Darren Edwards E-mail to Openreach and BT on 22nd March 2020

Subject: Fibre Broadband Insatallation - MK44 2LS, MK44 2LT and MK44 2NE

Philip/Clive,

Unfortunately, I find myself writing to you after THREE years of total frustration regarding the fibre broadband installation in Honeydon, . Up to now we've been dealing with Justine Ives and Paul Adams from the Economic Projects team at Borough Council. Due to poor information and perpetual project slippages, I set them a deadline of March 20th to make satisfactory progress and provide a detailed update. Sadly, neither has been received. Therefore, I've been left no choice but to raise the issue with the BT CEO and Openreach MD. This is only one part of a multifaceted approach in an attempt to finally get some traction and bring some attention to this failing project. Despite Justine only confirming two weeks ago that ALL the households in Honeydon in the programme are to be upgraded, the latest communication on the 19th March suggests that this will now be a partial install for a handful of households in the village (see below). We currently have a number of fibre cables coiled up on poles outside Honeydon and to a handful of households at the west end of Honeydon. The project is supposed to provide Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) to all households in Honeydon. As you may be fully aware, on March 20th, the Universal Service Obligation for Broadband became law whereupon each household should receive a minimum of 10mbps.

Our current infrastructure consists of old copper telephone lines. The connection itself is unstable and only offers a MAXIMUM of 3Mbps. More often than not, this doesn’t surpass 1.5Mbps. In addition, the connection does seem to deteriorate when it rains. I undertook a speed text at midnight on the 8th March (when we experienced a lot of rain), which gave a reading of just 0.11 Mbps. There are a number of old OpenReach inspection pits which quickly fill with water and this impacts the telephone line junction boxes (water mixing with copper increases the impedance/performance). Please see attached a picture of an OpenReach inspection pit located in Honeydon - this shows the extent of the problem of the existing infrastructure. The cabinet that supplies Honeydon is in in a neighbouring village and was upgraded to fibre at least two years ago.

Residents, including our own Parish Councillor have already raised complaints with their service providers (up to directorate level within BT), who quickly deflect the complaint to OpenReach. Unfortunately, OpenReach doesn't appear to like to engage with the general public. OpenReach's broadband update web page hasn't changed in two years. So this has left us to deal with our local council who are funding the project with public finances. We have repeatedly asked for OpenReach contact details for anyone who can provide us information on the project, but have contiunously been ignored or denied. Calling customer services within BT just means talking to someone in India who reads from a transcript and follows a kettle diagram and is of absolutely no help.

Over the three years, communication has been deliberately non-committal and appears deliberately opaque from Bedford Borough Council. OpenReach and BT seem to play a 'piggy in the middle' scenario and are unwilling to engage with any communication or update.

However, on the 14th March 2018, Paul Adams made a promise that the installation in Honeydon would be completed by the end of 2018 (please see the below email - highlighted in yellow). Since then, we have been given a myriad of excuses that would liken to a child’s homework not being undertaken. These include:

• Not one, but two surveys apparently untaken by OpenReach each taking several months to undertake • A tree / bush creating an obstruction for the cable route. When asked the location no reply was given nor could I find any trees cut down along the route • Wayleaves - this has been used as an excuse twice and as recently as the 19th March 2020 (yes, three years on) • Not being able to reach land owners to gain consent - an excuse used twice and as recently as 19th March 2020 (yes, three years on again). In order to try remove yet another road block, our own Parish Councillor requested both the location and land owners name, but was quickly shut down under data protection concerns by Justine. • Two road closures - each taking three months to organise.

All of the above has been disclosed via written communication and can be forwarded should it be required.

At no time have any project disciplines been displayed or communicated. Despite requesting; gantt charts, schematics, project mile stones, potential risks, any mitigations for potential risks none have been offered or demonstrated. In addition, no communication lines were set up and the broadband update webpage seems to be frozen in time. It’s up to the public to push for updates. Communications have been vague and sparse, and generally consist of 'kicking the can down the road'.

In addendum, despite requesting, no interim solutions or funding were offered

A FOI has been raised (FOI 15573) to Bedford Borough Council and I believe several more are in the pipeline.

In recent weeks I've been in contact with other villages in North Bedfordshire, and there seems to be a repeating pattern of only partial upgrades. and long waits with poor excuses. I'm unaware of OpenReach returning to a partially upgraded village in North Bedfordshire and it’s proven very difficult to get them to return (a bit like a bad tradesman). Our neighbouring village is a fantastic example of this.

I appreciate that this mail doesn’t come at a convenient time with the concerns surrounding COVID19, but please spare a thought for the children now having to home educate and their parents trying to work from home with an incredibly poor connection, which should have been resolved two years ago. It's my understanding that schools are likely now to be closed until September at the very least, so this project is now having a major impact on the education of the children of Honeydon.

As mentioned, this is one of several avenues that I'm currently exploring. In parallel to writing to yourselves, I have also written to our MP, the Major of Bedford and the CEO of Bedford Borough Council. There are several others.

I look forward to your reply and greatly appreciate any support you may be able to lend on this project.

May I please ask that you provide a reponse by the 3rd April.

Yours sincerely,

Darren Edwards

MaPgdp, MIET, BIFM, MILT

07810546789