Vodafone’s well deserved reputation as the only reliable network in the village has taken a knock in recent weeks, with weak and intermittent contacts.

James Garnett is a corporate user of the network as Commercial Manager for Vodafone Group Plc at IBM Sales and Distribution. He has taken this matter up with the Vodafone Network Team at Newbury, who have responded as follows:

 
From Vodafone Network Team

Good evening James,
 
Thank you for your email.
 
I have checked your case for updates and it looks as though we have a couple of issues to contend with to get the site up and running. The main one being a line of sight issue due to overgrown trees causing the loss of service coupled with a hardware failure. Our engineers have a visit to the site booked for the end of the month to swap out some hardware while we await the attendance of a tree surgeon to resolve the line of site problem. The replacing of the hardware should hopefully bring the site back online but until the tree surgeon attends to the line of sight issue the service will expectedly continue to be degraded.
 
We do not have any confirmed date for the attendance of the tree surgeon at present but we will continue to monitor your case for updates and will be in touch with you when we receive them.

We can only apologise for the inconvenience caused and the delay in resolving the issues affecting you.

 
Look for further information from James on this website as the matter proceeds.

On a raw, cold and misty Sunday morning, friends and neighbours of Chris and Melanie Kirkpatrick attended a “topping out” ceremony to celebrate the completion of their own construction of a new dry stone wall between The Chestnuts and Madam’s Close.

More pictures on the next page.

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Christmas Eve, 24th December 2014. The twenty-fourth and final  contribution to the Village Advent Calendar Windows, at Church Cottage, Church Street.

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23rd December 2014. The twenty-third  contribution to the Village Advent Calendar Windows, at Hill Farm House, Manor Road.

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22nd December 2014. The twenty-second  contribution to the Village Advent Calendar Windows, at Southland Cottage, Helmdon Road.

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21st December 2014. The twenty-first  contribution to the Village Advent Calendar Windows, in the Church of St James the Less.

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How the wind farm turbines would have appeared from the Barrow Hill footpath

It will be recalled that the second public inquiry into the proposed Spring Farm Ridge Windfarm took place in October 2013. Normally, the Inspector who presides at the inquiry is delegated to make the decision but in this case, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, announced that he would be making the decision for himself. It was announced this morning (23.12.2014) that the Secretary of State had decided to dismiss the appeal by Broadview Energy Limited and refuse planning permission for the turbines. The company has six weeks in which to consider whether to challenge this decision in the High Court.

See here for the Secretary of State’s decision letter.

20th December 2014. The twentieth  contribution to the Village Advent Calendar Windows, at Eagle House, Helmdon Road.

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19th December 2014. The nineteenth contribution to the Village Advent Calendar Windows, at The School House.

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18th December 2014. The eighteenth contribution to the Village Advent Calendar Windows, at 12 Spinners Cottages.

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