Downe village

Waterloo 200th Anniversary Celebration

 

Was held on Saturday 27 June 2015

 

Pictured below - the Duke of Wellington with his chief adviser and guest at Apsley House (or Village Hall ?) where he entertained 46 guests to a dinner and dancing!.

 

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Downe streetlights (Jul 2015)

 

The current financial position is:

 

A huge thanks to all those who have donated money for the installation of “heritage” posts so far.  To date we have raised £8,267 towards the total of  £13,878.   This means we still need to raise £5,611 to completely fund the work.   The village has paid what it owes Bromley Council, and to get the project rolling, a villager fronted the money and we are endeavouring to pay it back.

 

The current implementation position is:

Bromley Council have now started on the programme of replacing the old concrete street lights.  They have issued us with the following schedule – which is rather later that we were originally told.  Note that the heritage post replacement work seems to have been left till last.

1.    STANDARD ROAD, BELLEVUE ROAD, SNODLANDS CLOSE, STALISFIELD PLACE, MILL LANE, HIGH ELMS ROAD – Installation of new columns started on site and main service plus removal of columns programmed for approx. start date W/E 20 July 2015

2.    NORTH END LANE, HIGH ELMS ROAD – Approx. programme date W/E 26 July 2015

3.    GREEN HILL WEST – Approx. programme date W/E 9 August 2015

4.    ROOKERY ROAD – Approx. programme date W/E 23 August 2015

5.    LUXTED ROAD – Approx. programme date W/E 6 September 2015

 

Items 2, 3, 4 and 5 dates may be changed due to Road Closures and Traffic Management.  Road Closures will be for North End Road, Green Hill/West Hill, Rookery Road and Luxted Road as these roads are too narrow for other vehicles to pass by while carrying out the installation / connection works.

 

If you want to see the full plan, go to the Residents' Association page .

 

(below replacement work starts in Standard Rd and Stalisfield Place)

 

 

Superfast broadband campaign in rural Bromley  -  July 2015

 

One of the two companies involved – Gigaclear – have now started posting invitations to residents and businesses to register their interest.  

 

However, it is not necessary to receive anything through the post for you to register interest.  Can I therefore urge everyone to carry out this registration on the Gigaclear website.  Just go to:

 

www.gigaclear.com/registerme

 

then enter your postcode, then follow the subsequent registration instructions.   Don’t worry that the registration subsequently refers to “Cudham” – the area covered is Downe and Cudham.

 

Can I just stress this company needs a significant interest from us, in order for them to move to the next stage, so it is in all our interests to get as many registrations completed as we can.  Please urge your friends and neighbours to register -  even if they are unsure – this is not a commitment at this stage.   This is a great chance to get better broadband in our area and it seems when you take into account you may no longer need a BT phone line and thus no BT monthly line rental and no slow BT broadband (or other supplier) monthly cost, its looks like it might save everyone money.   Additionally, the London School of Economics say that fast internet availability can have a positive effect on house prices now (I've seen a figure of a 3% premium over black spot areas)

 

For information, Gigaclear would lay fibre optic cables underground in our area (under roads and fields etc).  Every property should be passed, and a junction in the road outside each property installed.  Service could then be supplied once the property is connected up to this junction.  Gigaclear also plan to hold public events in Downe and Cudham in the near future.

 

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Two potential solutions to bring superfast broadband into the area are now under consideration.    However, there is still a way to go to actually get something going.

"Gigaclear" – this broadband company have fibre-enabled a number of areas in the UK.  They have provided me with a street plan for providing a fibre-optic broadband service – via digging up the fields and roads to lay cables.   In order for this to be economically viable for them, they say that they would need to get 40% of households signed up to the service.  Their costs would likely be:

• Connection charge - £100 for residential customers, £200 for business customers plus approx. £100 installation cost

• Monthly fee - £38.80/m (for 50mb download speed)

• Contract – 15 months plus 3 months rolling notice period

 

“Crockham Hill Community Broadband” -  this start-up company provides “wireless” fast broadband to North Downs area near Westerham, and are willing to do the same here.  We have discussed the possibilities with Virgin Media, and could start a pilot system in Downe initially, by intercepting an existing fibre optic cable at the primary school and “beam” the broadband signal around the village.  Initially, a 15 metre aerial mast would need to be erected, and receiving properties would mount a small receiver on the roof/chimney.  Costs would be:

 

• Connection fee - £299 inc VAT (residential),

• Monthly fee £29.99 per month (for 24mb download speed) 

 

Each option has it’s “pros and cons”.  

 

Option 1 - has the benefit of hidden fibre cables laid to outside every property, but would be a large undertaking, and requires the community to commit to the 40% takeup figure.   Gigaclear plan to leaflet our areas soon to establish interest.

 

Option 2 - has the advantage of getting started quickly, and Bromley Council (Cllr Peter Morgan) has offered start-up funding from the “Community Fund” to help start the service.  It also has the benefit of being a “not-for-profit organisation”, with any profits raised used to expand the network or potentially to be returned to the community.  However, asthetics and planning permission issues may intrude. 

 

Bromley Council are being included in the discussions on both