All the recent news about the possibility of a broadband upgrade in Ferrensby has been quite pessimistic, though the Copgrove telephone exchange itself was due to be upgraded during 2014.

However there were recently some road works close to the General Tarleton and village resident Ian Margason contacted me to say that a new large green box had been installed which might suggest some progress on superfast broadband. The cabinet certainly looks like a large FTTC box (Fibre to the Cabinet) and is directly opposite to the old green telecoms cabinet.

I contacted Patrick Robertson of Superfast North Yorkshire Community Project Executive to see if he could shed any further light on the situation. Here is his reply:

“I understand that the cabinet in Ferrensby is indeed due to be upgraded. It was initially planned to be part of the second phase (starting mid-next year) but I believe it has been brought forward which is clearly backed up by the activity in the village. It is now in the plan to be completed by the end of the year although given it has already been installed it may be done before that. The cabinet may be installed but it isn’t yet live – it may be that it still needs to be connected to fibre or power.

I sent my address and land line details to Patrick so he could check my own situation and here is his assessment:

“I’ve checked your number and you are connected to the cabinet opposite the General Tarleton which is in the process of being upgraded to fibre. As soon as I’m notified that the new fibre cabinet has been enabled I will let you know.

It may still be some after enablement before service providers will be able to accept orders. So, although there is still much work to be done, the outlook is more promising than that envisaged at the last Parish Meeting.

John Marshall