Cilgerran

Download the Community Council Meeting Minutes for Monday the 16th of June in Microsoft Word Format or PDF

To those of you wondering what is going on at the school field, at last work has commenced on the Multi Use Games Area for the benefit of all within the community.  The scheme is being funded by Pembrokeshire County Council, Festive Week Committee, Cilgerran Community Council and the Sports Council for Wales.  The scheme is being coordinated by the Community Council and should be completed by the time the children return to school (weather permitting).  It will be an all weather facility with the benefit of flood lights.  The next stage will be to provide teenager activities at the Rectory end of the site which will include a skateboard park facility.

Thanks to Cllr John Davies

Download the Cillgerran Corwg No.21 Summer 2008 in Low Quality [19.1Mb]

Sandra is asking whether there is anyone interested in forming a local artists club.  Obviously if people respond this can be taken further.  Are there any keen artists here who would like to get together?.

The Corwg is a newspaper so named because of the history of this area and use of coracles for salmon an sea trout (sewin) fishing.  It is written and produced bi-lingually by the Language and Heritage committee “Pwllgor Iaith” and delivered, free of charge, to every home in the village twice annually (summer and winter).  A low quality version (because of limited website space) of this paper can be downloaded from this site.

Download the community council annual meeting minutes for 2008 Microsoft Word Format

Download the Community Council Minutes for the 9th May 2008 Microsoft Word Format

Wales has almost the slowest broadband anywhere in the UK, second only to Northern Ireland. The UK average is now 3.2 megabits per second. In London the average is 4.46mbps and, with an average of 2.59mbps, Wales is just ahead of Northern Ireland at 2.26mbps. Cardigan telephone exchange serves Cilgerran and was broadband enabled more than four years ago. Because of this Cilgerran is now considered to be receiving broadband and advertisements promise linespeed of several megabits. BT claim that 48% of Pembrokeshire homes are now connected to this high speed technology. The reality is that services cannot be provided at high speed because the supply equipment is below standard. At the Pen-y-Bryn end of Cilgerran there is a signal providing about the average (2.59mbps) for Wales. This is in contrast to the Llwyncelyn end of the village (further from the exchange) where the signal is significantly weaker at 0.5mbps and in some cases even less. At 0.5mbps you can just about receive video and download larger files such as photographs etc. Less than 0.5mbps does not provide a satisfactory service. BT say that they are contracted only to provide a telephone line and therefore any broadband signal is a bonus (despite their advertisements). After one year receiving 0.5mbps on a BT contract John Snowden, at Berry Hill Llwyncelyn, found his signal reduced at the end of April to 135kbps (only two and a half times faster than a dial-up connection).  John has been battling with BT to have the signal at least restored to the former 0.5mbps (still less than a quarter of the average speed) but although he is regularly assured that engineers are working on the problem there has been no improvement.  John is corresponding with various organisations to try to achieve a satisfactory resolution of this problem. This handicap will have a detrimental effect upon house sales and business, especially for the younger generation.  Broadband at home is now almost as essential as water and electricity.  Apparently the service provided for Cilgerran and surrounding district also serves St Dogmaels and all lines come from a box near the river bridge in Cardigan.  The box is served by a cable from Cardigan exchange and is already running at maximum capacity which would suggest that when a new broadband user joins the scheme it is likely that all others must have a reduction in service.  Llwyncelyn is at the furthest end of the run to Cilgerran and probably suffers most.  At least one recent application for broadband in Llwyncelyn has been rejected and, because this is an area considered to be broadband enabled, no action is planned to improve the situation.  Technically equipment exists which could solve this problem but there is a cost to BT.  Potential users here and in surrounding properties need to vigourously complain to demonstrate the strength of public opinion on this issue.  If we lived in a so-called “not-spot” it is almost certain that a better response would be forthcoming from BT. 

Ann Beynon, BT’s director for Wales, has recently been reported as saying “Broadband is proving a major boost to the economic success of Wales as businesses use the technology to find new markets and work more efficiently, while households take advantage of the almost limitless opportunities for education, entertainment and shopping”. Ann has clearly not been made aware of the poor service being provided in this part of the world. It is possible to contact Ann through BT’s public affairs manager Suzanne Masterton suzanne.masterton@bt.com Would other Cilgerran residents care to air their views regarding BT’s standard of service?

The village website was set up in 2005 and initially proved to be a great success with more interest than expected from within the village and from several countries worldwide. This level of interest was unfortunately not sustained because there was insufficient local input to keep the site busy.

After a significant pause this website is again active and under new management. Pete Maynard, an energetic young man who resides in the village, is enthusiastically rebuilding the site and has already redesigned the layout incorporating all of the original features. He is aware that during the last three years more local people have developed computer skills and the internet has become an integral part of their lives. With BT gradually improving telephone links this village is becoming more Broadband friendly.

Pete’s idea is to invite those who visit the site to contribute and to add to the material on view. With that in mind he has included a facility for users to comment at the end of each section. He is aware that the success of the site and ultimately the web profile of the village depends upon local participation. Pete has the full support of the Community Council and it is hoped that contributors will assist him to develop this website into a valuable asset for this village.

Pete Maynard deserves our thanks and support for his efforts on our behalf and, with local support, this website should have every chance of providing a modern “notice board” for all village activities.

Contact Pete at:- info@cilgerran.info

The Friday club for primary school children meets after school on Friday at St Llawddog’s church.  It is hoped that the organisers will supply more detail in the near future