At last! High Speed Broadband is finally coming to North Perrott.

I have had a very constructive meeting with Wessex Internet, who have a contract to supply super-fast broadband to rural communities in Devon & Somerset. It is their intention to install a fibre connection to every household in North Perrott, (north of the railway line), in the summer of 2022, possibly starting as soon as May.

These are early days but you can find out more about their contracts and installation on their website by clicking here.

On their website you can register your interest in using them as your supplier of broadband. This will help them identify you for future contact and assist in them assessing demand.

Wessex Internet have a novel solution to rural internet connections and instead of using existing infrastructure, which can involve huge costs of digging up roads and pavements, they take the shortest route across farmland, burying the fibre cable 90cm underground with minimal ground disturbance. This means it is more likely that your connection will come from the rear of your dwelling, especially if it backs onto farmland.

I have made more enquiries about costs but at the moment, it sounds as if connection costs may be part of the government contract, although their website states that all properties are subject to a £49 activation fee. I will post more information here at a later date.

It is likely that most home and business owners will be contacted over the next few weeks, especially if you own a field, paddock or large garden that might be part of the main cable route. In this case, you may qualify for a half price connection if your property is needed to access other customers.

While all properties will have the option to connect, those who decline will still have coil of cable buried outside their property in case of future need. This means that connection could be made at a later date , such as when the property changes hand. (Access to high-speed broadband is currently a strong selling point in the housing market).

At this moment, it looks as if this option for super-fast broadband will replace the earlier investigations that were made into having a community leased line.

A plan for a large solar park at Pipplepen Farm was proposed by Elgin-Energy a year ago. In feedback, the Parish Council stated that our main interest was in ensuring that the existing ecosystems were maintained and enhanced without any loss to habitat. This involved; not removing any mature trees, keeping all hedges and allowing them to grow outwards and upwards and additional planting where shielding was required.

Elgin-Energy submitted an application before last Christmas but SSDC has only just accepted it and put it on line.

We will be discussing it at the next meeting on Tues 7th September and anyone wishing to view it before the meeting can do so here

Application (21/00701/FUL) cab be viewed here – https://publicaccess.southsomerset.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=QPATZUOWFNI00&activeTab=summary.

UPDATED 08:00 26/08/21 – Resurfacing is now complete and the road is now open. Please drive slowly while there is loose grit on the road. Thank you.

UPDATED 08:45 25/08/21 – No sign that work has started yet and the road remains open. The next update will be as soon as we know the direction of work and the level of disturbance to traffic through the village.

UPDATED 15:15 24/08/21 – Cllr Mark Keating has contacted me to say that work is currently scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday 25th August.

UPDATED 11.30 23/08/21 – Signs are being placed out at the moment. Workmen say that re-surfacing will not be happening today. The next update will be when the situation changes.

Please be aware that the main road (A3066) is scheduled for re-surfacing (re-sealing) this week and the signs indicate that the road will be closed for one day, while the work is being undertaken.

There is no further information on the Somerset County Council website at this moment and so the first we know more details about this may be when the road sweepers arrive.

Further information will be posted here when it is available. The job will be done relatively quickly and although the road between the villages of North Perrott and Haselbury may be closed for most of the day, residents should be able to leave the village from at least one direction.

The area of the road to be re-sealed is from the yellow road markings at the top of the village green in North Perrott to just our side of the village green at Haselbury.

Up to the minute information can be obtained by calling 01823 38291 except that it is on an answerphone this morning!