East Sussex Pub Donates Land to Help Ditchling Get Superfast Broadband

A pub called ‘The Bull‘ in Ditchling, which is situated a few miles from the East Sussex town of Lewes and won the 2016 Great British Pub Awards, has helped 300 local homes and businesses to access FTTC based “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) by donating a section of their private car park to Openreach.

Lately there have been quite a few reports where people have complained about the placement of new telegraph poles or cabinets, so we thought it might provide a little balance if we covered a story where the opposite is true. In this case the local pub agreed to donate at least part of their private car park so that Openreach could build a new cabinet and connect local premises.

Dominic Worrall, Owner of The Bull, said:

“Having been approached by the residents of Ditchling, I was delighted to offer some land to Openreach as we understood their expansion plans had been complicated as there wasn’t a suitable public site in the village.

I’m thrilled that this will now benefit the local school, businesses and home owners to operate and connect at speeds that a modern and progressive village like Ditchling needs. It’s a true reflection of how a community can work together.”

The local deployment of Openreach’s up to 80Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) technology is being supported by public investment through the e-Sussex project, which claims to have made superfast broadband speeds available to around 96% of premises in the county and is now aiming to get as close to universal coverage as possible (here).