Rural UK broadband ISP B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North), which is a community benefit society that has deployed their 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network to 25,000 premises across England (inc. 13,000+ customers), has secured new grant funding to help them reach more villages in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley area.
According to details released during a recent meeting of the Ribble Valley Council, some £100,000 has been approved to support several of B4RN’s deployments. The new investment forms part of £675,000 that has been committed to various local community projects (solar, broadband, EV charging, playgrounds etc.) under the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) – this rural scheme sits alongside the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF).
The approved allocations include a £50k grant toward one of B4RN’s deployments in the Ribchester area, as well as another £50k toward similar deployments in the tiny remote rural communities of Bolton by Bowland and Paythorne.
However, it wasn’t all good news, because there wasn’t enough funding available to approve all of B4RN’s applications. As a result, the operator’s application for an additional £50k in order to support their deployment of a new full fibre broadband network across Grindleton and Sawley was not approved. Admittedly, this is only a small slice of the estimated total project cost of £866,800.
The project team for the rejected application now have most of the wayleaves in place and have 183 requests for connection. The project team have secured £492,500 worth of funding from the Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS). They have also raised £103,900 of private investment from local residents and businesses. With the support of the grant, the project team could have delivered on phase 1 of the project well in advance of the cut-off of March 2025 for this funding. The grant would have been used to cover part of the cost of the initial network installation and would therefore meet the timescales of the grant funding.
Still, getting two out of three applications approved remains a positive outcome, and the roll-out for Grindleton and Sawley looks as if it will still proceed.