Work to bring fibre broadband to Sharnbrook begins this month

Project Gigabit is the government’s programme to enable “hard to reach communities” to access “fast, reliable gigabit-capable” broadband.

CityFibre presented its plans to roll out pure fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband across Bedford borough as part of this project to last night’s Rural Affairs Committee (Thursday, April 3).

The committee heard that the company is providing an “open network” and not the internet services,

These will be provided by partners such as Vodafone and Sky.

“We will be starting to build in Sharnbrook on April 22, so in a few weeks’ time we’ll start to see CityFibre barriers and CityFibre trucks at work,” Charlie Kitchin, partnership manager at CityFibre, said.

He added that the build partners will be hand posting information, including contact details, to the areas affected by the works.

And if residents have any issues, such as needing to cross a trench to drive away, then they should approach the work teams directly, Mr Kitchin said

“The teams that we have out there in their hi-vis jackets are all trained to be as helpful as possible,” he explained.

CityFibre admitted that this rollout is a “messy job” so there could be some concerns for residents.

“We’ll put things back as best we can,” Mr Kitchin said.

“We don’t necessarily do it all the time as we go – there’s no point in tidying it up and then messing it up again – it might be to wait until the end of the build.

“We are here to do that [work] and to do it as best as we can with as little inconvenience to people as possible,” he said.

Drawdown Two of this project starts on April 22, and includes Sharnbrook, Felmersham, Radwell, Odell, Bletsoe, Souldrop, Riseley, Brook End, Keysoe, Bolnhurst, Swineshead, Melchbourne and Knotting Green.

Justine Ives, team leader economic projects and places at the borough council said CityFibre isn’t covering the whole of the borough and around 80 per cent will be picked up by commercial organisations.