We are happy to report that Beech Hill Memorial Hall (BHMH) has recently successfully installed Super-Fast Fibre to its building.

On a recent visit to the hall Kate Meads, Community Buildings Advisor at CCB said; “I was delighted to hear that after much effort on the part of the BHMH Trustees, full fibre broadband has now been installed by Gigaclear. The Trustees are thrilled by the new speeds and hopeful it will attract new hirers and offer the possibility of developing a community hub to support residents with access to digital technologies in the future”

“CCB is looking closely at how Village Halls might become Digital Hubs in some rural locations where broadband connections are poor and where many people are digitally excluded. Digital inclusion in rural communities is one of our key strategic aims.”

Beech Hill Memorial Hall Hon. Treasurer Fleur Howles said: “The Memorial Hall at Beech Hill recently completed the installation of full fibre broadband by Gigaclear, the rural fibre network specialists.  With help from CCB’s Community Buildings Advice Service and a fair amount of pestering from the Trustees, Gigaclear eventually designated the hall as a community hub, meaning our broadband will operate at super-fast speeds for at least the next year at no charge.

This is great news for the hall, as we can now offer services to hirers and locals who would like to use the hall for a variety of activities, such as remote working, online classes, and streamed entertainment such as films and video presentations.    

Previously our speeds were between 8 and 12 Mb/s, and in a trial in December 2021 it was found that with two people working remotely in the hall, only one person could access Microsoft teams at a time, making remote working impossible for groups.  

We are very pleased with the results and hope to put this new capability to good use as more and more services move online.”

We know this will be a great asset to the local community and if you’re interested in learning more about the memorial hall and how you can book it for your local business or event please click here to take a look: https://www.bhmh.org.uk/