Amenities

  • High Speed Broadband for Great Wolford

    I’m pleased to tell you that the Barton-on-th-Heath exchange is due to be upgraded to high speed broadband from April onwards. The BT cabinet in Great Wolford will be upgraded too so that we can hope for the option of very significantly faster FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) broadband in the village over the next few months (though exactly when is difficult to ascertain).

    Here’s a link to the CSW Website where up-to-date information may be obtained:
    http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk/where-when/rolling-12-month-plan

    Meanwhile, there’s good news too for local businesses. Grant funds are available for FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) giving ultra-fast connections to all sorts of online services. These include Cloud hosting of data, backup, file and mail servers. If you’re not sure aboutwhat this means for your business give me a call on 01608 650778 for a chat. If there’s enough interest I’d be happy to put together an informal information session for those interested.

    Finance for these grants is limited and it is first-come-first-served so I urge you to act swiftly. Further details in the press release reproduced below.

    Charles Pearmain

     

    Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme

    A new scheme has been launched in Warwickshire to enable eligible businesses and voluntary organisations to claim grants of up to £3,000 towards the cost of upgrading to superfast broadband. The Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme is now available to any business, charity or voluntary organisation and can cover both fixed solutions, usually fibre connections, or wireless solutions such as satellite or microwave broadband where fibre is not available.

    Organisations are usually eligible if they employ fewer than 250 people and have a turnover of less than £41m per year. Even sole-traders or businesses run from home can apply, so the scheme is open as widely as possible.

    The Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme will complement the broadband rollout under the CSW Broadband programme, and is administered by Coventry City Council, who have over 12 months’ experience of the voucher scheme in Coventry prior to its extension into Warwickshire.

    It is very positive that this scheme is now open to organisations in Warwickshire and organisations are urged to apply as soon as possible. This voucher scheme will help those businesses who need support to connect to the new technologies, and will also help those in areas where the fibre network has not yet reached by contributing to the connection costs of satellite or microwave solutions. Warwickshire has a high number of small enterprises and businesses run from home, and it is important that these should be able to compete against larger businesses in an increasingly global economy.

    The scheme has been running in Coventry for some time and so far over 300 vouchers have been issued, representing grants with a total value in excess of £500,000. Applying to the scheme is very straightforward and applications will be dealt with promptly, simply visit www.coventry.gov.uk/broadband

    All enquiries about the scheme should be directed to Coventry City Council by emailing [email protected]

    Remember: A fibre connection may not be available in your area now, but the CSW Broadband network is expanding rapidly. It is a wholesale network that will offer a wide choice of Internet Service Providers, so if you are told that fibre broadband is not yet available in your area, check the CSW Broadband website for more information: http://www.cswbroadband.org.uk and of course, this voucher scheme also covers satellite or wireless solutions if you can’t wait for fibre!

  • Heating Oil Syndicate
    The Village Heating Oil Syndicate is run by the Parish Council – for details see Parish Council

  • Parish Magazine

    The Link is the monthly Parish Magazine which has information about all sorts of local events and happenings covering the seven local parishes of the SW7 benefice. There is a small annual subscription and it is delivered at the beginning of each month. If you do not already subscribe and would like to do so please contact Di Watson 01608 674325.

  • Library

    The Mobile library visits on a three weekly cycle between 10.00am and 10.20am Monday mornings stopping in the Fox and Hounds car park. For further details see www.warwickshire.gov.uk.

     

  • Transport

    The Shipston Link bus service www.shipstonlink.co.uk picks up at 10.07 on Fridays by the post box to go to Shipston on Stour and comes back to the village about 12.30.

    The Villager Community Bus is an established scheduled service operating in parts of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. The main routes are through some of the smaller North Cotswolds villages and towns with the primary aim of serving those communities for which other means of transport are either difficult or non-existent.

    The Villager bus serves Great Wolford on Wednesday afternoons. It stops in the village at 1.46 pm before travelling on to Todenham, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Moreton, Evenlode, Adlestrop and Salford arriving in Chipping Norton (West Street) at 2.15. The return bus leaves Chipping Norton (West Street) at 4.25 pm arriving in Great Wolford at 5.02. The full timetable may be viewed or downloaded HERE. (Timetable revised as of 01/06/2015)

    There is a good train service from Moreton in Marsh going into London Paddington via Oxford or in the other direction to Worcester. Buses run from Moreton in Marsh to Stratford on Avon or Cirencester. Buses run from Shipston on Stour to Stratford on Avon. There are several local taxi services.