After more than 10 years of hard slog, a group of Upper Eden villages at last have high-speed broadband — courtesy of B4RN, the non-profit rural supplier.
Campaigners and supporters gathered on Wednesday to celebrate the good news that Kaber, Nateby, Hartley and Winton can finally benefit from a host of vital super-fast internet services.
Kaber volunteer Liz Staley, a lead campaigner for the project, put its success down to a big team effort. “We have been fighting for more than 10 years to gain access to such an important new utility as fibre broadband,” she said.
“I am so thankful we have finally achieved this, working closely alongside B4RN and in collaboration with other volunteers and landowners from Hartley, Nateby and Winton.
“It just goes to show, keep standing your ground and you can get there, it’s a great achievement. I really hope other rural villages in our area who do not have this service can keep fighting and not give up. During the pandemic it was so apparent how much we needed to gain access to fibre for working from home and education. It was noticeable how impossible it was, especially for my son’s home schooling.”
Mike Bidgway, aged 80, another long-term Kaber campaigner, said it had been a massive task. “I have been busy,” said Mike. “When BD UK (Building Digital UK) first-started, we were in conversation collectively for all the small parishes in the Eden Valley. We were negotiating for money etc.
“To cut a long story short, that did not go anywhere. I started to interface with various service providers, Open Reach for example, trying to get them interested to bring a service for the ‘not spots’ as we were called.
“In the end we got in touch with B4RN who are a not for profit, and started negotiating with them.”
Mike, a retired IT professional who used to work for IBM, said the impact of the project cannot be overstated.
“It is very gratifying to see the look on people’s faces when they tell me they are up and running now,” he said. “The advent of having a piece of fibre that comes straight into your house is beyond fantastic. All these years we have had fairly poor service over aluminium or copper landlines in the ground, and there is very little mobile coverage.
“We have been left behind for years. It has been very, very difficult for farmers for example, because more and more of their work and their reporting and their interface with Defra etc has to be done online.”
The faster speeds, increased bandwidth and improved connectivity will provide a massive boost for rural businesses as well as private individuals, meaning better access to banking, health, education and other government services as well as streaming services for leisure. Mike adds that the success of the project is due to a huge team effort in the communities, including a dedicated group of people representing each of the four parishes, as well as support from local landowners who allowed essential way leaves to be installed to achieve the spread of the B4RN network across the area.
The partnership with B4RN has been about two years in the making, and also received important support from Eden MPs, including Tim Farron.
“Tim Farron has been very supportive, attending meetings that we call in order to interest people,” said Mike, who also praised former Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart for his backing in the early days, saying: “He was very influential in getting things off the ground with BD UK”.
Mr Farron, who attended the celebratory gathering this week, said. “It was an absolute privilege to join the community in Kaber and celebrate this fantastic achievement. The rollout of high-speed broadband to these very rural villages was only possible because of the incredible teamwork shown by B4RN, the parish council and local residents. This should also give great hope to neighbouring communities who don’t have access to adequate broadband, and who I am still fighting for.”
Tom Rigg, CEO of B4RN and Stan Jenkins, network developer project co-ordinator of B4RN, were among those attending the get-together in Kaber along with partners and volunteers from the parishes.
A B4RN spokesperson said: “The rollout of B4RN full-fibre broadband in the village of Kaber, which is part of a collective of communities including Nateby, Hartley, Winton and nearby hamlets, is a shining example of what can be achieved when a community comes together with a shared vision.
“At B4RN, we work hard to engage not only with the community but also with key stakeholders essential to the success of such a project.
“These include our community investors, landowners for their permissions and in-depth knowledge of the land, Building Digital UK and the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), Connecting Cumbria and their support through top-up voucher funding, and many others who make it possible.
“With the majority of the community signed up for our service, our commitment ensures that homes, farms and businesses in the most remote areas will have access to resilient full-fibre broadband, both now and in the future.
“This project is about more than just broadband; it’s about people working together to build something that will benefit future generations. We extend our deepest gratitude to every volunteer who has contributed their time, energy and expertise to making this vision a reality.”
B4RN is a community-led initiative providing gigabit full-fibre broadband to rural areas in northern England.
It was launched in 2011 and typically engages with community groups at parish level.
