Sunday 26 February 2023

Saturday 25 February 2023

Friday 24 February 2023

Tuesday 21 February 2023

Monday 20 February 2023

Tuesday 14 February 2023

Notes from Gigaclear village meeting Monday 13th Feb 2023 in Chearsley Village Hall

 

Presenter: Rezia Khan -  rezia.khan@gigaclear.com

Here is a link to the presentation http://www.chearsley.com/Gigaclear/ChearsleyResidentsEvent130223.pdf

Notes below from KWT:

1.       The Gigaclear ultrafast broadband rollout is a government backed initiative and independent of the Parish Council. Access to the public highway permissions come directly from Bucks council or, where private land access is required, directly from the relevant land owner.

2.       Gigaclear will put in access points on the public highway or nearest telegraph pole (if available) for all properties in the village to potentially have Ultrafast broadband. Actual connections to properties will only be made if householders sign up to a contract which is entirely optional.

3.       For Chearsley, most cabling will use existing BT ducting and telegraph poles to install access points for houses. There will be some limited trenching on verges which it was stated will be made good. There will be some short stretches of road trenching. The work is expected to start before June and take several months. Connections to homes purchasing the service will then take place over the next month or so. Note Gigaclear have consistently missed their communicated dates so far !

4.       The initial low prices are for the first 18 months and not guaranteed thereafter. Please check Gigaclear web sites for pricing.

5.       Packages range from 200Mbs, 400Mbs, 600Mbs to 900 Mbs upload/download speeds.

6.       The existing BT line to houses will not be removed.

7.       Gigaclear offer a phone VOIP service for between £3 and £9 a month. They stated the existing number could be retained.  There is no line rental charge. This will need some form of UPS (power backup ) in the event of a power cut otherwise there will be no landline service. Currently a standard BT (non wireless phone) remains working as it is on a powered line. However note that these are being phased out nationally over the next several years as the government intends for the UK to go fully  VOIP.

8.       If a householder has a UPS a question was asked about how resilient Gigagclear infrastructure would be in the case of a power cut. No specific answer was given other than Gigaclear infrastructure has some level of battery or for major data centres , generator, backup.

9.       A question was asked about reliability stats – no specific answer was given.

10.   A question was asked about customer retention rates – no specific answer was given.

11.   A question was asked about a recent incident in a nearby business park which was cut off from Gigaclear broadband for 8 days after a cable was sliced through. Gigaclear stated the issue here was that this problem required digging up the highway which meant Gigaclear had to apply for permits and for these to be granted by Bucks council before work could begin and that caused the delay in this case.

12.   A question was asked about what backup there is like the BT Halo system. [ Note: the latter requires a mobile phone signal. Most mobile phones can act as a temporary wireless hotspot to provide connectivity but only if there is a mobile signal.]

13.   For buildings where there are potential access problems, Gigaclear stated they would provide a free  survey upon householder request.

14.   The customer support centre was stated as being UK based and open 8am-8pm weekdays and 10am-5pm weekends and bank holidays.

15.   A new Linksys router provided by Gigaclear needs to be used. Existing hubs cannot be used.

16.   It was stated that existing mesh extensions might work else further Linksys routers would be required, either purchased or rented from gigaclear.

17.   All Gigaclear roadworks will be logged with the public https://one.network/ website. This gives advance notice of all utility and council roadworks.

18.  If you have further questions please use www.gigaclear.com or email rezia.khan@gigaclear.com directly. Please note the Parish Council is neutral on this topic and is merely trying to help facilitate the flow of information. The PC urges each householder to do their own due diligence as to whether to use this new service. Note there are mixed reviews on such websites as https://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband/providers/gigaclear/reviews/


Saturday 11 February 2023

New Choir


Run by our very own Chearsley resident Elena
 

Wednesday 8 February 2023

Wednesday 15th March


 

In Memoriam - Mary Scholefield

 


Many in the village will be sad to learn of the passing of Mary Scholefield, the mother of John Scholefield who is a lay preacher for our church,

Mary and Jock moved to the village in 1991, living in Chearsley Hill Barn.  They were both involved in many aspects of village life, with Mary playing a large part in the Church, in particular visiting those in the village needing help or company, and was also a member of Chearsley Village Trust.

She left the village in 2014 after Jock died to live nearer to her daughter and will be remembered with much affection by many.

Friday 3 February 2023

Wednesday 1 February 2023

Postponed

 Dear Friends

Apologies for any inconvenience, but our Steering Group has made a decision to postpone our planned meeting (originally scheduled for Thursday 9th February).

 The new date and timings are:

 Thursday 16th March

Chearsley Village Hall

19.15 for 19.30

Our meeting will cover a number of areas of significant historical interest within Chearsley, as well as giving our community an update on future plans for our new organisation.

We’ll let you have more details ahead of the meeting and do hope you’ll be able to join us on this new date…….and please bring along any photographs or other documents illustrating the history of our village.

Needless to say, we’d also welcome any thoughts you might have on possible areas or activities in which we might involve ourselves in the future.