South Lakes MP Tim Farron has called on local residents in Storth to look at a proposal by Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) to move out from their base in Lancashire and bring superfast broadband to the Cumbrian village of Storth.

B4RN is a “not for profit” Community Benefit Society. It has been established by people living in Bowland and the Lune Valley, with the aim of installing a fibre optic superfast broadband network. It will be available to every property in our area; with no exclusions because a property is too far away or too difficult to reach.

B4RN plan to connect the villages of Yealand Conyers, Yealand Redmayne and Silverdale, scheduled for the later phases of the project and will consider coming over the border into Cumbria if there is sufficient demand and the community is prepared to fund the project through share purchase and help to install the fibre cables. Tim is asking local residents if they are interested in the scheme. If enough interest is recorded the service could ‘come online’ within the next 2 years.

B4RN are hoping to connect around 1,400 commercial and residential properties under Phase 1 of the project in north Lancashire. Work on the network got underway at the end of March.

The network offers fibre to every home providing 1000 megabits (1 gigabits) future proof connection for £30 a month on a not for profit basis. They also offer the opportunity of shares in the organisation. The Shares are of two types, a standard share which anyone can subscribe to and a special share which is reserved for purchase by members of the community who are doing work to build the network. For information on B4RN please visit their website: www.B4RN.org.uk

Tim said: “B4RN are a fantastic community organisation who really are leading the field in super fast broadband. This kind of project is exactly what we need to connect up our county. If local residents want to join the scheme please do declare an interest. The more people that join the more likely it is to happen!”

Link to original article [Jul 2012]

Update – MP Tim Farron’s still on board for Storth

Thanks Tim!

@cyberdoyle In what sense? Do I still support B4RN? Yes I do.

— Tim Farron (@timfarron) April 14, 2014

@cyberdoyle Glad to see Storth in there. I’d be happy to help them in any way I possibly can.

— Tim Farron (@timfarron) April 14, 2014

If you’ve seen our planned route, you’ll have noticed it starts at Borwick. We’ll be continuing the 1Gbps fibre broadband connection from though Yealand, to Silverdale & Storth.

The team at Borwick started their B4RN project some time before B4YS began, but you see below that they’re well on their way.

The B4RN model works – communities doing it for themselves – and it’s coming to a village near you!

You can see more pictures and follow Borwick’s progress on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bphtb4rn

With growing numbers of people going online to perform tasks ranging from work to grocery shopping and streaming entertainment, good broadband has become critical. Homes without can lose 20 % of their value.

Slow broadband speeds can wipe as much as 20 per cent off the value of properties and lack of superfast connectivity in an area can be a dealbreaker in house sales, property experts have said.

With growing numbers of people going online to perform tasks ranging from working to grocery shopping and streaming entertainment, good broadband has become critical.

Property search website Rightmove has now added a broadband speed checker to every one of its listings alongside factors such as quality of local schools and transport links.

Estate agents said broadband speed is so vital that buyers are walking away from a purchase if they discover that superfast speeds are not available in that area.

Rightmove said research it conducted among among 3,000 people found that broadband details were ranked as a more important feature when searching for property than information on transport links and nearby schools.

Read the rest of the article on The Telegraph »