Goudhurst residents and businesses across the village and its surrounding areas can now enjoy the benefits of full fibre broadband after Openreach connected the remaining properties this week.

Openreach wrote to Greg to confirm that: "the full fibre projects in the Goudhurst area are completed  and 800+  properties there now have access to full fibre."

The announcement comes nearly 3 years since Greg was first asked to assist the Community Fibre Project. 

Greg has been kept regularly updated on the progress of the overarching rollout since he was first got involved in August 2020 by urging the then Secretary of State for Digital Culture, Media and Sport to expediate approval.

Following approval by BDUK, the project was hit by numerous delays and cost issues, leading Greg to set up frequent meetings with Openreach during the first half of 2021 in order to drive progress forward, with 7 meetings taking place between February and June. 

The agreed solution to cost pressures and delays was to split the project into 3 parts: Project A - comprising of the village centre - and projects B1 and B2 for the surrounding rural areas. 

Project A was granted approval in March 2021. However, Greg intervened further to ensure Openreach substantially reduced the cost of community pledge target for project A from £560,000 to £415,000 due to errors by the provider putting the project at risk of collapse. 

Project B1 moved into delivery stage in November 2021, with B2 delivery starting in May 2022.