Local MP Jack Lopresti visted the Willow Brook Centre on Saturday to join Town Councillors in welcoming support from Bradley Stoke businesses in the campaign to bring faster broadband connections to the town.
About 2,000 homes in Bradley Stoke have very poor broadband speeds because they are too far away from the BT exchanges at Filton and Almondsbury and their streets are not cabled by Virgin Media.
Mr Lopresti has vowed to make the fight to secure faster, more reliable, broadband coverage across his constituency one of his top priorities and he recently met Communications Minister Ed Vaizey to discuss the problem.
The Bradley Stoke Journal has been urging local residents to vote in the Race to Infinity, a nationwide competition being run by BT, that will see the five areas registering the most votes fast-tracked for the installation of superfast fibre optic broadband.
Vote now at: www.racetoinfinity.bt.com
N.B. You don’t need to be a BT customer in order to vote. Even if you are content with the broadband speeds you are getting (perhaps because you are a Virgin Media customer), please take a few seconds to vote and help those who are less fortunate.
Generous financial support from the Willow Brook Centre, CJ Hole and the new Bradley Stoke Harvester restaurant has funded the printing of banners and posters to publicise the BT competition, which runs until the end of year.
The sponsorship has also facilitated the printing of 5,000 leaflets to publicise the BT competition and a further 2,000 leaflets to promote a second campaign front that will demonstrate the demand for Virgin Media to complete its cable network in the town.
All the publicity material has been designed free of charge by local graphics design firm Fortyfour Creative, one of many local firms that say their business is seriously affected by being in a broadband ‘slowspot’.
A team of volunteers from the local community is being assembled to distribute leaflets to the 2,000 homes in the 52 Bradley Stoke streets that aren’t currently on the Virgin Media network. The remaining leaflets will be distributed through schools, community centres, libraries, pubs, shops and local businesses.
Matt Gregory, Sales Manager at sponsors CJ Hole North Bristol, who was unable to attend the publicity launch due to business commitments, said later:
“We at CJ Hole are very pleased to support what we believe is a vital campaign to the residents of Bradley Stoke. With the local economy prospering and with new job opportunities being created, we understand that tenants and homeowners moving to the area demand the most efficient broadband service available. We are always heavily involved with community events and are never surprised to see such strong support for a cause which is going to benefit one and all.”
The Journal’s Better Broadband campaign has the full support of Bradley Stoke Town Council, which is kindly displaying a campaign banner at the top of its website. The Council has also placed broadband campaign posters on all its noticeboards in the town.
Anyone able to help with the upcoming leaflet drop (starting 27th November) is asked to email bb4fabs@bradleystokejournal.co.uk. We currently have over half the streets covered but still need volunteers for 23 of them. A full list of the streets being targeted and the volunteers assigned to them can be seen here.
If you would be able to display a poster or distribute leaflets at your place of work, please get in touch and we’ll deliver them to you.
Top photo, L-R: Cllr Jon Williams, Andy Oram (Willow Brook Centre), Cllr Brian Hopkinson, Cllr Ben Walker, Rob Wilson (Fortyfour Creative), Cllr John Ashe, Adam Giles (Bradley Stoke Harvester), Jack Lopresti MP, Cllr Ernest Brown, Cllr Robert Jones.
Second photo, L-R: Andy Oram (Willow Brook Centre), Adam Giles (Bradley Stoke Harvester), Cllr Ben Walker, Jack Lopresti MP.
More photos from Saturday: album; slideshow (PicasaWeb)
More info: Better Broadband Campaign (The Journal)
A big thank you to Jack Lopresti MP and Bradley Stoke Town Councillors John Ashe, Ernest Brown, Brian Hopkinson, Ben Walker, Robert Jones and Jon Williams for turning out on Saturday morning for the photo opportunity.
Thanks also to sponsor representatives Andy Oram (Willow Brook Centre), Adam Giles (Bradley Stoke Harvester) and Rob Wilson (Fortyfour Creative) who took time out from their busy schedules to take part.
The story has received coverage in today’s Bristol Evening Post: Internet campaign picks up the pace.
We’ve also sent a press release to Bradley Stoke Matters, so let’s hope they’re able to give this community campaign some coverage on their website and in their Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke and Stoke Gifford magazines.
I was disappointed that it was not made clear in the article that Lib Dems and Conservatives are working together to support this campaign. There’s even a Consevative photo used to illusrate the article. I thought BSJ was supposed to be politically neutral.
Jon
Jon, thanks for turning up on Saturday. We can only use a limited number of photos in the article. This doesn’t indicate any political bias. Can we leave it at that please? We’re ALL working together on this.
Aren’t the lib dems and conservatives working together on everything nowadays anyway? Careful not to rock the boat Jon, ole Nick and Dave won’t be pleased!!
Well done to all those concerned who are doing their bit with this campaign, although why some try to score political points is beyond me.
Getting back to the business in hand, we still need volunteers to deliver leaflets in the following streets:
Blackthorn Drive, Carter Walk, Courtlands, Dewfalls Drive, Fern Grove, Garrett Drive, Jordan Walk, Kemperleye Way, Mautravers Close, Merryweather Close, Orchard Gate, Palmers Leaze, Penrose Drive, Pimpernel Mead, Somerby Close, Stoke Meadows, Teasel Mead, Webbs Wood Road, Wheatfield Drive and Winsbury Way.
Please email bb4fabs@bradleystokejournal.co.uk to volunteer.
Thanks to Southern Brooks Community Partnership for featuring the Broadband Campaign in the news section of their website.