Parish Community Plan up-date March 2011

The Parish Community Plan was finalised, printed and distributed to all households in June 2010 and was officially launched at a party in the Social Club.

West Berks Council awarded us an initial Grant of £5000 to help “kick-start” the implementation stage of the Plan, so our first task was to decide which of the many actions that had been planned should receive priority for funding.

The aim was to bid for grants that would provide general benefit to the majority of residents, rather than specific groups, and it was agreed that the grant should be used to fund three projects:

1. The purchase of two large marquees that can be used for a range of different Parish events. They were quickly put to good use to house the Last         Night of the Proms concert and the Flower and Produce Show at the Village Fete. The marquees are available for hire at below market rates to            Parish residents.

2. Funding for a new heating system for the Village Hall as part of the refurbishment programme. This has recently been completed.

3. Assistance with funding additional security shutters for the Community Shop building following a number of burglaries. Sadly, even this did not prevent a further break-in, leading to the closure of the Shop.

As well as those projects, some excellent progress has been made with implementing a number of other actions:

• The Parish Council arranged a series of regular open meetings with the Police to discus residents’ concerns.

• The e-newsletter organised by Penny Locke has grown from strength to strength covering news from around the local area.

• The Village Hall refurbishment programme is well under way starting with a new tarmac car park and including better storage space and improved toilets as well as the new heating system.

• Freddie Tulloch has taken on the lead role for the Sports and Leisure programme and has made an impressive start by organising a very successful Golf Day that raised £500 for the Social Club, a Social Club Sports Challenge and a Christmas Festive Fun Run. Freddie is setting up a strong organisation to cover all areas of leisure interests and is combining forces with the current East Garston Amenities group.

• Alan Breadmore, leading the Technology sub group, has made a huge breakthrough in his efforts to improve mobile phone reception in the Village. By persistently lobbying Vodafone and Richard Benyon, our local MP, Alan has gained commitment from Vodafone to use East Garston as a national trial site for some new equipment that gives network coverage in areas not covered by the main network signal.
The first set of equipment has been installed and is working well to give a good signal around Humphreys Lane area with the remainder of the Village being completed as soon as possible. To gain advantage from this arrangement, you have to be on the Vodafone network.

• The Allotment Association, already under way before the Plan was finalised, has really done well with members producing some excellent crops. The highlight was the Flower and Produce Show at the Fete that attracted a large number of entrants and raised a good sum of money from the sale of produce.

So, overall, we have made a good start with implementing some of the actions that were planned, but there are still many to get under way. As always, there are too few volunteers to do it all, so anyone wishing to join in and help should contact Martyn Wright on 01488 648679.

Martyn Wright
Planning Group Chairman
11th March 2011

Mobile Phones in East Garston update 8th of March 2011

As promised here is an update on the status of the project. Things have moved on well although a little slower than originally hoped. Cells have now been installed in the Social Club and at the Eastern end of the Village Hall. The village hall installation is using a new super effective aerial which appears to be giving coverage greater than expected.

I walked around the village today and was able to get a strong signal along the entire length of Back Street and an acceptable signal along most of Front Street from the Cornbaggers Bridge to the Forge Bridge. This is in addition to the coverage already in Humphreys Lane. I will check it out further over the next few days but would really appreciate feedback about your experience, especially from indoors.

Just to remind you this service is only available to Vodafone subscribers (contract or PAYG) and will only work with 3G phones (most new phones other than the most basic now have this facility). If you are not a Vodafone subscriber and would like to “try it out” then let me know as I am able to get you a free Vodafone SIM. The service is invisible to the user and it just feels like a conventional mobile phone call and costs the same as your current tariff. Data access is also supported. In fact today whilst testing we were able to get perfect streaming video in the Village Hall Car Park.

The next stage, over the next few weeks, will be installations in and on top of The Queens Arms which will hopefully serve much of the Eastern end of the village and we are currently looking for suitable sites at the Western end of the village around Downlands/Station Road.

If you have any queries or feedback about the project please do not hesitate to contact me – Alan Breadmore -Telephone 01488 648851 and I will endeavour to answer them or get a man who can.

Alan Breadmore, East Garston Parish Community Plan, Technology Team.
8th March 2011

Mobile Phones in East Garston

You may remember that one of the key actions in the East Garston Community Plan for the technology group was to lobby politicians and mobile providers in order to improve mobile phone services to the village.
I am pleased to announce that with the support of Richard Benyon’s office, Graham Jones and West Berkshire Council, Vodafone and BT we have some exciting news.

Following talks with Vodafone it was apparent that installing a conventional mobile phone mast in the valley that would support East Garston was clearly not financially viable for them. However it transpired that they were developing some new technology that could enable mobile phone reception in rural communities at much less cost. We presented the results of our Community Plan to Vodafone showing a higher than average Vodafone subscriber population in East Garston and the compact nature of the village and their own data demonstrated that the centre of the village was a total black spot in terms of reception.
The upshot of this is that East Garston has been chosen as the National trial site for this new technology and work has already begun.

The technology is quite complex and currently unique to Vodafone but in simple terms, small mobile phone cells will be set up at strategic points around the village that will cover about 100m. Instead of transmitting through the “airwaves” like normal phone masts the signals are then converted and sent via broadband through the conventional phone system and then a clever box at Vodafone unscrambles everything and puts it back into the mobile phone network. All of this is invisible to the user and it just feels like a conventional mobile phone call and costs the same as your current tariff. Data access is also supported.

One of the boxes has already been installed in the phone box on Humphrey’s Lane and is up and working. Ironically, it has had the knock on effect of reprieving our phone box!! I have been able to get good reception along all of Humphreys Lane. Further units will shortly be installed on the Village Hall and in the Social Club and more are planned around the village over the next couple of months. Sites have already been identified in Front and Back Street. I will keep you informed of progress.

This is a major step forward and I encourage you to check it out. Obviously it is only available to Vodafone subscribers (contract or PAYG) and will only work with 3G phones (most new phones other than the most basic now have this facility). I am hoping to get some free Vodafone SIMs for anyone who is not a Vodafone subscriber to try it out.

As this is a trial, things may not be perfect; that is why it is important for us to gather feedback. Please let me know the quality of the signal that you have in and around your home as this will influence the placing of the additional boxes around the village to ensure as full coverage as possible.

If you have any queries about the project do not hesitate to contact me - Telephone 01488 648851 -and I will endeavour to answer them or get a man who can.

Alan Breadmore, East Garston Parish Community Plan, Technology Team.
5th February 2011