Following the previous update, we are pleased to report that progress continues with Gigaclear’s plan to bring faster and more reliable broadband to our village.
The initial design for our villages has been completed (as promised a few months ago) and the Parish Council has been shown this prior to it being finalised with their construction team. The new infrastructure will wherever possible use existing ducts and poles to deliver a new fibre cable to each property, although there will be some digging and new ducts required in some places. We thought we’d mention this as some land/homeowners might be contacted in the New Year where such new wayleaves are needed. These could need a legal agreement for both parties to enter into and this will be explained in detail if you are contacted. However, the large majority of houses will be served without the need for this.
Having reliable and fast broadband in our village is becoming a necessity for most of us and this new facility will bring an end to the frustrations of recent years, due to the unreliability of the old aluminium and copper infrastructure.
Gigaclear staff will be visible in our parish over the coming months and once they are ready to proceed, their team will be holding presentations locally for us to meet and ask questions.
When there is more news to share, your Parish Council will be in touch again.
St Mary’s church Yelverton will be hosting a winter wonderland flower festival 28-31 Dec, 10-4pm. Admission is free, and there will be refreshments and a raffle.
Children welcome, and can go in fancy dress if they want! See the flyer below
Winter has certainly arrived in the past week with a cold snap taking us into the start of Advent. As we head towards the Festive Season we can enjoy lovely clear skies by day and look out onto beautiful frosty gardens in the mornings.
Hopefully, as Christmas approaches, you will also find some quiet time to sit somewhere warm and comfortable, to read some of the gardening magazines and books you never found time to read earlier in the year and conjure up some wonderful plans for your garden in 2024.
Some plants to enjoy in December
Winter-flowering heathers (Ericas), will flower in most garden soils for most of the Winter months and are very tolerant of both cold and exposure. Excellent for brightening up a few pots.
Mahonias are architectural shrubs with pinnate leaves and spiny tips, with beautiful bright yellow Winter flowers with a lovely lily-of-the-valley fragrance. Most Mahonias, such as Mahonia japonica, are large shrubs up to 3m tall, however there are also more compact varieties available.
Holly (Ilex) is a great shrub at any time of the year, but in Winter it provides vibrant green or variegated foliage with bright red berries which are loved by birds and festive decorators.
Sweet box or Christmas box, (Sarcococca) is a compact, evergreen shrub that bears tassels of tiny creamy-white, strongly scented flowers in deepest winter. This plant does well in shady areas.
Skimmias are evergreen shrubs which bear tiny white scented flowers and bright red berries at this time of year.
General Garden Maintenance
• Clean, oil and sharpen your garden tools ready for Spring. • Keep bird feeders well-stocked with a variety of treats for your garden visitors and ensure water is also available to them in freezing conditions. • Although it makes sense to water plants sparingly at this time of year, make sure that container plants and pots in the greenhouse don’t dry out completely. • Protect tender palms and tree ferns from frost. Pack a few handfuls of straw into the crown, tie up the leaves or fronds, and then wrap the whole plant in horticultural fleece or hessian tying it off securely at the bottom. Don’t use plastic sheeting or bubble wrap because on warm days, your plants will sweat and rot. • Indoors, keep your houseplants happy by moving them away from warm radiators and into a sunny, cool place where they will fare much better. • If very severe frosts are forecast, float a football on the water in concrete lined ponds. When the water freezes, the ball will absorb the ice pressure rather than cracking the concrete sides.
Fish may suffocate if ice persists for long, so melt a hole by standing a metal pan on the surface filled with boiling water. Try not break up thick ice as this could injure the fish or if the broken ice falls into the water, this will lower the water temperature further and negate the insulating effect of the frozen surface.
Fruit and Vegetables
• Crop parsnips, leeks and winter cabbages as needed. • Pick Brussel sprouts when they are about 1inch across. • Dig any potatoes you have planted, ready for Christmas. • Lift and divide clumps of Rhubarb, replanting the separated sections with lots of well rotted manure. • Plant and support bare-root fruit canes, bushes and trees, provided the ground isn’t frozen. • Cover any kale, winter cabbages and other brassicas with netting to protect them from hungry pigeons. • Prune apple and pear trees to control their size and shape. • Prune blackcurrants, gooseberries, redcurrants and whitecurrants this month to remove a quarter of the old wood and create the open goblet shape to support next year’s fruit.
South Norfolk Council runs a handyperson scheme for older and more vulnerable residents. This scheme is free or low cost, see the information below from the Council:
South Norfolk Council recognise how important it is for our elderly residents to stay in their own homes for as long as possible and sometimes a small change can make a big difference.
The Council’s Handyperson+ scheme supports residents with a wide range of small household repairs and minor adaptation work.The experienced team can help with many tasks including fitting key safes, fall prevention adaptions, smoke alarms, grab rails and better lighting. They can also offer advice on staying warm during cold weather.
The experienced team can help with many tasks including fitting key safes, fall prevention adaptions, smoke alarms, grab rails and better lighting. They can also offer advice on staying warm during cold weather.
As well as small works, the handyperson will chat to residents during a visit to see if they would benefit from any additional help. They have an in-depth knowledge of grants, allowances and services a resident may be eligible for.
In addition, the team can direct residents to relevant community support, including social clubs or events in the local area to help combat loneliness.
You may be eligible for the service free of charge if
You are over 65
Have a long-term condition or disability AND
Receive either Housing Benefit, Guaranteed Pension Credit or Universal Credit.
You may be eligible for our handyperson service with an hourly charge of £10.32 if;
You are over 65 AND
Have a long-term condition or disability
You may be eligible for our handyperson service with an hourly charge of £20.78 if;
You are under 65 you have no long-term condition or disability.
This does not include the cost of any materials.
To contact the Council to request the Handyperson+ service please call 01508 505284
Did you know that the Parish Council collates information on drivers’ speed through the village, and the reports are available on the website for anyone interested? The October 2023 report has just been added.
The camera is moved around the village roughly every month, and the speed of the average speeder is calculated. You might be surprised how many cars go over the speed limit, and surprised at the maximum recorded speed each month.
All the reports going back to 2022, can be found here on our parish council page:
Surprisingly, there now appear to be two companies drawing up plans to supply Alpington and Yelverton with full fibre hyperfast broadband, and this post gives some information and updates on the situation.
Since we published our previous posts on County Broadband’s plan to bring hyperfast full fibre broadband to the village, you might have seen a flyer in the post from GigaClear, another company seeming to offer a similar product. Which was a surprise to the Parish Council, to me, and presumably anyone else in the village who has been following the project.
The Parish Council have been making enquiries to clarify the situation, and have made contact with the GigaClear manager responsible for the area. We wanted to pass on the information so that you are kept up to date.
County Broadband does not have the monopoly on providing fibre for our parish, hence Gigaclear’s intention to investigate and offer a fibre service too.
Gigaclear does not require a minimum number of customers to subscribe before they proceed, unlike County Broadband indicated they would.
Gigaclear will have a proposed design for our parish by the end of the year and this will then be reviewed internally for approval. After this, they could put the scheme into their construction schedule. There is no indication of when this might be, yet.
Gigaclear is keen to provide a service to us, they are currently working in Poringland and other local villages.
The Manager will keep in touch and provide updates. And we will pass those on to residents with subsequent posts.
Both providers are companies with a track record of bringing fibre broadband to rural and urban locations and both are drawing up plans and gauging interest in our area.
GigaClear’s website offers a facility to register your interest, which is what the flyer mentioned. This can be done here, it’s just a form with your address, no payment or commitment. It would probably make them more likely to speed things up if loads of us expressed an interest.
As we said in previous posts, the Parish Council expressed their support for the County Broadband plan, because it would of course be good for the village to have more reliable broadband. Now it looks like there’s a second provider who is serious about providing a service and has a similar plan.
So it seems appropriate to give GigaClear the same level of exposure on this website, to let you know there are two options, either of which may be taken forward if there is deemed to be enough interest.
We’ll keep you updated on any further developments.
On Wednesday 8th November 2023, A talk hosted by the Bergh Apton & District Society, Christmases past, 7.30pm Bergh Apton Village Hall, Cooke’s Road, NR15 1AA
Depending upon when you read this message, there are 52 days to Christmas!
However whilst pondering whether to give socks, shortbread or a helicopter ride to Uncle Albert this year, why not come along to the last Bergh Apton speaker meeting to learn what happened at CHRISTMASES PAST.
Mary Fewster, WEA lecturer will be our speaker. We start at 7.30 pm. Raffle. Refreshments.
Alpington and Yelverton 