Would you like to get much faster broadband to your home or business?

Would you be happy if someone else paid for the whole cost of the upgrade to full-fibre broadband?

Local village councils have clubbed together and reached a deal with Openreach which can make this dream a reality – but only if we all take action to help it happen.

The government is offering a £1500 voucher to every home (and £3500 to every business) to help them upgrade to full-fibre broadband. On its own, this voucher is of little practical use to anyone, because it doesn’t begin to pay for the cost (hundreds of thousands of £).

However, by clubbing together across our villages and pooling everyone’s vouchers, we can raise enough money to pay for all our villages to be upgraded together – at no cost to anyone. Therefore we are asking you to pool your voucher to the scheme. If enough people across the villages of Netherfield, Ninfield, Brightling, Ashburnham, Penhurst, Catsfield, Dallington and Mountfield do this, then we will all benefit from the upgrade.

The project will only go ahead, with all these benefits, if enough people pledge their vouchers. Please take action now.

How do I pledge my voucher into the scheme?

Please visit https://www.openreach.com/connectmycommunity Scroll to the bottom of that page, check the robot box, and enter your postcode.

Hopefully the result will be a page saying “Your area is eligible”

At the bottom of that page, please click on the green “Pledge for Netherfield Ultrafast Community Project” (or “Pledge for Manchester Road Ultrafast Project”). That should take you to the pledge form.

• On the pledge form, please check “Sole trader” or “Business” if you can. The scheme will get more money that way. You do not have to be a limited company, but you may be asked to produce some evidence of trading, such as an invoice or bank statement. If you are a business but not a limited company (or LLP), you can enter 000000 as the Company Number.
  
• On the pledge form, underneath the boxes for your email address, there is a checkbox “Your postcode has been identified as being eligible for a further local body top-up” Please check this box as well – it gets the scheme more money.
  
• By pledging your voucher, you are agreeing that you will subscribe to an Ultrafast full fibre service when the project is complete. You will not be held to this if you move house, and nor will the new owner. There are other terms and conditions which you should check.
  
• If you need more help filling in the pledging form, see our help page on filling in the form
  
• Finally, please share this with your neighbours and ask them to pledge too.

What happens next?

You will get an immediate confirmation email. You don’t need to reply to this confirmation email. Please note that this is a bit different to what it says in the leaflet that went out. Openreach changed the procedure at some point, and we didn’t realise until after the leaflets had been printed.

Later, once enough vouchers have been pledged to cover the target, DCMS (The Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport) will send you your voucher. At this point you will need to fill in the voucher and send it back (within 28 days), so that Openreach can claim the money from DCMS. Openreach will then go ahead and start building the new network. We expect the work to be completed within 12 months once the build has started

Do you have more questions about the scheme?

Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page

How is the scheme progressing?

Please check this page regularly as this page will be updated with the latest information