Council Launch Inquiry into Aylesbury Vale Broadband FTTH Rollout

The Aylesbury Vale District Council in Buckinghamshire (England, UK) has agreed to conduct an independent inquiry into the controversial Aylesbury Vale Broadband project, which was setup by the council to roll-out an ultrafast rural “full fibre” (FTTH) network but has since run into difficulties.

Officially AVB is supported by around £700,000 in the form of a publicly funded commercial loan from AVDC, which itself acts as a 95% shareholder (most of AVBs directors work for the council). However some reports have indicated that this investment may not have been enough, although sadly the company’s current financial status has so far been kept away from the public gaze.

Last month we wrote a long article about some of the problems that AVB has experienced (here), such as concerns around the potential overbuild of rival networks (e.g. Gigaclear and wireless ISPs like Village Networks), service performance, deployment delays, financial viability, the loss of a key Managing Director (Andrew Mills) and the status of subscriber deposits.

At the time the AVDC council also stated that they were “currently exploring expressions of interest in [AVB] and [were thus] unable to discuss any sensitive matters relating to the company,” with Gigaclear appearing to be the most likely candidate to scoop up the company (one source alleges that Gigaclear may have already made an offer that’s too good to refuse).

We were expecting an announcement to be made last week but nothing happened. Instead the 6th December 2017 council meeting (documents) saw Councillor Christensen and Councillor Mrs Harrison submit a new motion, which called upon AVDC to undertake a “detailed external audit of Aylesbury Vale Broadband.”

The new motion noted that “corporate oversight and scrutiny of these ventures has been limited which many Members are deeply concerned about. In addition there have been conflicts of interest for Directors/ Cabinet Members and their places on the boards. They have had to meet their Directorship responsibility to the commercial venture and that of the Council. Similarly the Cabinet Members have been unable to answer questions to Members of this Council, citing commercial sensitivities.”

The Proposed Audit Plan

a. Commence no later than 1 Calendar month from the sale of AVB or by the 31st of January 2018 whichever is the sooner.

b. The Audit should report no more than 3 months after commencement.

c. The report will be published in full and in public.

d. Be conducted by a qualified individual appointed by the Chief Executive but with the express agreement of all Group Leaders.

e. Include, but not be limited to, a review of the management of the business including the performance of the management team, delivery of services to target villages, performance against business plans, and the use of capital.

f. review of the oversight provided by Cabinet members and Officers while acting as Board members of Aylesbury Vale Broadband Ltd.

Today a new report on Mix 96 carries word that AVDC has agreed to setup an independent inquiry. The report includes a comment from the council’s Lib Dem Leader, Anders Christensen, who claims that AVB has “run out of money … only connected around a third of the people who gave deposits to get the service [and] didn’t hit any of the targets in the pilot phase that warranted the extra £1.3m being invested in it.”

The inquiry itself, which appears to follow the aforementioned plan, will be conducted by an external body and is expected to go through AVDC’s Audit Committee.

Councillor Janet Blake said:

“We are extremely proud of the success Aylesbury Vale Broadband (AVB) has achieved in delivering high-speed broadband to rural villages in the Vale that otherwise had no realistic likelihood of being connected by other providers.

We fully acknowledge that some customers have experienced problems and that demand for this superfast broadband service is now beyond the scope of AVB. It is for this reason that we are looking into how the company’s good work can be continued and best developed – we are hoping to announce some news on that front very soon.

It’s impossible to give an absolute value on return but, based on government figures, the economic benefit to residents and businesses could be more than £30 million by 2024 – a significant return on the £1.5 million we invested in high-speed broadband, which also included the Connected Counties project.

We welcome a review into AVB – post implementation practices are good business practice and will identify lessons that can be used in the future. The Audit Committee will now look into the operation of AVB and will report back in four months.”

We should point out that the £1.5m referenced above (the full figure is £1.536m) reflects AVDC’s allocation from the New Homes Bonus fund for the rollout of broadband in the Vale, some of which also went to the Openreach (BT) supported Connected Counties project that is a joint programme between the local authorities of both Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.

Hopefully we should learn AVB’s fate before the end of this year or at least before the end of January 2018.