Information for landowners

Summary

  • All routes, work and timing are only undertaken with landowner agreement.
  • Details are agreed in principle first and then a Wayleave document is produced.
  • B4RN provide all the ducting, fibre and access chambers.
  • Ducting can be installed using low impact mole plough or trenching.
  • The landowner can self install the ducting or let B4RN supply the labour.
  • Work equivalent to £1500 entitles the recipient to free connection and free B4RN broadband for 1 year.
  • B4YS will make every reasonable effort to return the ground to its original state after installation.
  • The community model will only work if sufficient landowners agree to free access.
  • B4YS will create local employment through installing and then supporting the network.

Where are the planned routes?

This draft route has been drawn using OS map information and satellite images.

If the proposed route crosses your land, we’ll be talking to you soon to discuss permission for access via a wayleave agreement.

If a landowner doesn’t want to give their consent, then it will be noted and an alternative route worked out.


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The combination of our rural setting, and the business model used by commercial telecom companies, would normally result in a fibre installation cost of £10,000 per property. Costs at this level make it very unlikely that a commercial company will ever want to supply a fibre solution. B4RN has very a different approach.

What is the B4RN approach for building a network?

B4RN plan to install the network buried in duct laid across farmland, typically on “the other side of the wall”, rather than under roads or on poles. This approach is considerably less expensive than trenching along the highway. The work can be done by agricultural workers and the farmers themselves; it’s similar to laying a water or drainage pipe. This approach when combined with volunteer labour, paid in shares, leads to a great reduction in the installation cost per metre.

Where necessary B4RN will use the highways, but this will only be for a small proportion of the duct length, e.g. road crossings and short sections where the farmland is not available to us or unsuitable.

For this community approach to work the land owners have to be prepared to grant free wayleaves to allow duct across their land. Clearly they would refuse to do this if the applicant were a traditional telecommunications company out to make a profit. However, B4RN is a community owned cooperative, run for the benefit of the community as a whole, so we hope that local landowners will support this initiative.

Each landowner with a proposed route crossing their land will be approached by local volunteers to see if they are willing to let the ducting be installed. If a landowner accepts the proposed route then an “agreement in principle” will be recorded, along with any specific details or notes about the route that might be raised. Any changes to the route can also be agreed and recorded. Once all the details are finalised they will be recorded on a signed Wayleave document.

If a landowner doesn’t want to give their consent, then it will be noted and an alternative route worked out.

What is installed?

Our plan is to use a standard industry practice of burying plastic (HDPE) ducting and then passing the multi-core fibre optic cable through it. The cable is blown through the ducting, using compressed air. The main trunk routes house between 1 and 6 ducts, with each duct being 16mm in diameter, links to properties use 7mm ducting.

The ducting can be installed either by using a mole plough or by burying in a narrow trench. Typically the duct depth will be 500mm, but it can be less provided there is sufficient protection.

Recessed access chambers will be located where the trunk cable has to be broken out for local distribution. These chambers contain up to four stackable units each 150mm deep, plus a 50mm deep lid, their total dimension being 915mm x 445mm by 650mm deep.

Who does the installation ?

The duct installation can either be carried out by the landowner, by B4RN volunteers or by local B4RN contractors. Payment is defined in a “piece work table” which is converted into an equivalent number of B4RN shares. As well as reducing the amount of cash we need to raise this allows members of the community to become actively involved with the project and to take a long term interest as stakeholders. Where duct has to pass under roads or rivers specialist contractors will be employed.

Note: Work equivalent to £1500 entitles the recipient to free connection and to free B4RN broadband for one year.

Wayleaves

Our current plan for Wayleaves is very simple. We indemnify the landowner against any accidental damage to our equipment on their property. They allows us to put our equipment on their property. We return the property to its original state as best we can after installation. We deal with any issues arising to their satisfaction. They allow us access, at reasonable times, to repair/upgrade our equipment. There is no payment made.

Click here to download the B4RN Wayleave Agreement (PDF, 88KB)

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LAND

Our most important job when beginning this project is finding out about local land, especially the landowners.

If you are along or close to the proposed route, it would be a huge help to tell us about your property: