Volunteers sought for Better Broadband campaign

Broadband - photo by charmcitygavin (licence: cc-attr)

The Bradley Stoke Journal is seeking volunteers to help promote its campaign for better broadband in the area after receiving sponsorship of £500 from two local businesses.

The money will be used to print banners, posters and leaflets for display and distribution around Filton, Almondsbury & Bradley Stoke.

The initial focus of the campaign will be to encourage residents and businesses to register a vote in BT’s Race to Infinity competition, which offers the chance of getting our local telephone exchanges fast-tracked for the installation of superfast fibre broadband.

Have you voted yet? If not, please do it now – it only takes a few seconds.

To vote, go to: www.racetoinfinity.bt.com/html-version

Subject to the outcome of local MP Jack Lopresti’s ongoing discussions with Virgin Media, we hope that the scope of the campaign will very soon be expanded to gather evidence (signatures/emails) to show  that there is sufficient consumer demand for Virgin to complete its cable network in Bradley Stoke.

Full details of the publicity campaign and the business sponsors behind it will be revealed shortly but, in the meantime, we are asking residents to volunteer their services for the distribution of posters and flyers and the canvasing of up to 2,000 homes in the worst-affect broadband ‘slowspots’.

Subject to recruiting sufficient volunteers, we will running a stall this weekend (13/14th November) in the Willow Brook Centre mall, where shoppers will be able to vote ‘there and then’ in the BT Race to Infinity.

This is an ambitious plan and we will need the help of scores people to bring it to fruition. Local businesses have set the ball rolling with their generous sponsorship; now it’s time for the community to rise to the challenge.

Please email us now on bb4fabs@bradleystokejournal.co.uk to volunteer your services.

BT Race to Infinity

BT Race to Infinity standings at midnight on 10th November 2010:

  • Almondsbury 369 votes (3.89% of total possible)
  • Filton 214 votes (1.14% of total possible)

Of the near 2,500 exchanges eligible for the competition, Almondsbury was one of the first 100 to reach a count of 100 votes, which resulted in The Journal receiving a special Campaigner’s Pack (pictured) from BT.

If anyone can make use of the posters (A3 and  A5 sizes), rosettes, stickers, pin badges, note pads or pens, please get in touch.

Upcoming promotional activities will include:

  • Canvasing at the Willow Brook Centre
  • Press releases to the local media
  • Asking schools, community centres, libraries, shops, offices to display an A4 poster
  • Distributing A5 flyers to the 52 streets in Bradley Stoke that don’t have Virgin Media cable [map and list of streets]
  • Urging the neighbouring Town/Parish Councils of Almondsbury, Filton, Patchway and Stoke Gifford to advertise the campaign on their websites and in their newsletters

We are also looking for someone to knock together a number of sturdy roadside noticeboards for the display of posters.

If you would like to volunteer to help with any of these activities or have any other suggestions for how we could promote the campaign, please leave a comment on this story, contact us via the usual channels or email bb4fabs@bradleystokejournal.co.uk.

Related link: BB4FABS Better Broadband Facebook group

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32 comments

  1. I am happy to be an volunteer in the Better Broadband campaign. Please let me know, how I can be a help to you. Tom Aditya, Champs Sur Marne, Bradley Stoke

  2. Fred, I think you’ll find that the original campaign was started by The Bradley Stoke Examiner. The Conservatives then stepped in to support it.

    Our new campaign has a wider scope than The Examiner’s (we’re addressing BT, Virgin Media and Community Broadband). It was triggered by the announcement of BT’s Race to Infinity competition and Jack Lopresti’s initiatives directed at BT and Virgin Media.

    We’re delighted to have both political parties supporting our campaign.

    This is a community campaign and we’d like to keep politics out of it, so please let this be the last example of petty political point-scoring.

    Can I sign you up to help in some way?

  3. I quite agree SH. Whilst we Conservatives have always supported the campaign and been instrumental in securing the support of local councils, and since May, the Government we have never claimed sole ownership of the campaign.

    There is a clear public demand for faster broadband in BS and it is therefore only right that politicians of all parties work together to do what we can to influence the companies with the power to rectify this issue.

    Race to Infintity represents another chance to demonstrate measurable demand and I congratulate the Journal for their efforts in publicising this campaign. I’m sure that residents and councillors alike will be signing up to help.

    In the meantime Jack Lopresti, Myself and Others will continue our dialogue with Virgin and BT to seek an early solution.

  4. Thanks to Bradley Stoke Mayor Cllr Ben Walker for volunteering by email.

    Cllr Walker has also kindly offered to have some boards made for our posters.

  5. Excellent Campaign!! Exactly what is required to inform the masses of the BT Infinity opportunity.

    Well Done to The Bradley Stoke Journal and volunteers!!

    (I am sorry that I am working this weekend so won’t be able to offer any help)

  6. We now have a spreadsheet showing the streets we want to leaflet and the people who have volunteered. We hope to have leaflets ready by 22nd November. Please email bb4fabs@bradleystokejournal.co.uk to volunteer your services. We’re also happy to provide leaflets for streets that aren’t on our hit list; just tell us which street(s) you would like to cover and we’ll add them to the list.

  7. We’d like to promote the Better Broadband campaign to the staff at local companies. Could you get a poster displayed at your workplace and perhaps get an email circulated to staff?

    Big firms like Orange, RAC, Tesco, Friends Provident, MOD, HP, Rolls Royce and Airbus are obvious targets but every little helps :).

    If you can guarantee to get it displayed in a good spot, we can get a glossy A4 poster to you. Email bb4fabs@bradleystokejournal.co.uk for details.

    Alternatively, just download and print an A4 or A5 poster from the campaign page and let us know where you’re going to display it.

  8. If anyone is able to hand out a few Race to Infinity cards at the Willow Brook Centre’s Christmas Lights Switch-on event on Thursday afternoon, please get in touch.

  9. I forwarded the broadband campaign email to 36 members (houses) of the Keralites Association of Bradley Stoke. I have asked members to forward that email to their friends in BS and encourage other people to sign up.

  10. @little Tom- natives of Kerala one would assume. Well done to the Journal for heading this campaign. Let’s hope it gets the support it needs to succeed.

  11. Two of our campaign banners are now in position. We have one on the fence of the Willow Brook Centre near the Savages Wood Roundabout on Bradley Stoke Way, another on the fence at Almondsbury C of E Primary School.

  12. I’m looking for volunteers to canvas at the Willow Brook Centre this Saturday (20th Nov) between 10am and 12 noon. We will have one of our newly produced 3m campaign banners and some A0 posters, so should be able to make a good impact. If you can help, please email us on bb4fabs@bradleystokejournal.co.uk. If anyone is able to canvas at other times, this can also be arranged.

    P.S. We are expecting Jack Lopresti MP and local town councillors for a photo opportunity in support of the campaign at 10:30am.

  13. Thanks to Lora for putting posters up at the RAC in Bradley Stoke and sending a message to the firm’s social list.

    Could you do the same at your employer?

  14. Thanks to Adam for volunteering (by email) to deliver leaflets in Fern Grove, Penrose Drive, Blackthorn Drive, Garrett Drive and part of Kemperleye Way.

    We now have more than two-thirds of the 52 streets covered.

    The leaflets should arrive in time for distribution this coming weekend (27th Nov), so let’s see if we can get volunteers for the “final third” before then.

    Please check the spreadsheet to see which streets are left.

  15. Leaflets should be available this weekend (Saturday 27th November).

    We still need volunteers to deliver in the following streets:

    Carter Walk, Courtlands, Dewfalls Drive, Jordan Walk, Kemperleye Way (part), Mautravers Close, Merryweather Close, Orchard Gate, Palmers Leaze, Pimpernel Mead, Somerby Close, Stoke Meadows, Teasel Mead, Webbs Wood Road, Wheatfield Drive and Winsbury Way.

    Come on, don’t expect someone else to do it!

    Please email bb4fabs@bradleystokejournal.co.uk to volunteer.

  16. Thanks to Cllr John Ashe for volunteering (by email) to deliver leaflets in: Carter Walk, Jordan Walk, Mautravers Close, Palmers Leaze, Shiels Drive and Somerby Close.

  17. Thanks to Clare S for volunteering (by email) to deliver leaflets in: Merryweather Close.

    Now only four of the 52 streets unassigned: Courtlands, Harvest Close, Orchard Gate and Winsbury Way.

  18. I’m looking for someone who’s available during working hours to get our BT leaflets out to schools, libraries, community centres, shops and businesses in the area. Will involve phoning, emailing and delivery. Offers of help to bb4fabs@bradleystokejournal.co.uk please.

    Our leafleting initiative has given the campaign a massive boost (the Almondsbury exchange now has over 670 votes) but we need to sustain the momentum for the final month of the BT competition.

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