ITS Tech Offer to Buy Struggling Fibre GarDen Cumbria Broadband Project

The ITS Technology Group has offered to buy the Digital Dales (Fibre GarDen) project, which was hoping to deploy an ultrafast FTTP broadband network to the rural Cumbria (England) villages of Garsdale and Dentdale until it was stalled by funding problems and a contractor dispute (here and here).

The Chairman of Fibre GarDen, Andrew Fleck, confirmed last month that the “viability of the project is [now] uncertain” and since then the project’s website has also been plagued by security warnings.

Never the less a crucial meeting (AGM) was finally held on Tuesday of this week to discuss the fate of the project and this is when ITS made their offer.

Roy Shelton, ITS’ Group CEO, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Fibre GarDen’s AGM took place so that the future of the project could be discussed. The chair, Andrew Fleck presented some key facts, as did I in my capacity as the main contractor and as a member of the Digital Dales Ltd board and investor in the project. As reported, the project came to a halt due to a lack of funds which was the result of a catalogue of issues – not least the delays in the de-scope process and Network Rail’s decision to back track on the backhaul provision.

In light of this, ITS put forward a proposal to buy Digital Dales Ltd and build the network in order to deliver on the communities’ need for ubiquitous superfast broadband, as well as get a return on investment for the shareholders, most of who are residents in the dales.”

At this point we understand that the proposal from ITS was rejected by most of those in attendance, not least because there still exists a “strong desire to keep this as a community initiative.” ITS has also informed ISPreview.co.uk that they will continue to support Digital Dales Ltd and the community in “anyway it can” in order to ensure that the project comes to fruition.

The board are now busy exploring all of the alternative solutions and intend to report back again in the future. Meanwhile the 580 or so affected premises in Garsdale and Dentdale will remain stuck in broadband limbo until a solution is found.