Swindon's CityFibre scheme manager apologises to residents

CityFibre has been working on improving access to high-speed internet since October 2020 - and the £40m scheme could be finished just after the three-year mark is passed.

So far, most of the town has been upgraded to accommodate gigabit-capable full-fibre broadband, with parts of Wroughton, Blunsdon, South Marston, Old Town, and Wichelstowe still on the to-do list.

Neil Madle from CityFibre (Image: Professional Images/@ProfImages)

Neil Madle is the area manager for Swindon and has worked with a build team to oversee the work of contractors Volker Smart Technologies and subcontractor CG Utilities to "future-proof Swindon for decades and generations to come".

He said: “We were thinking it would be three to four years and we're a little ahead of schedule, so it may be that we get it done by the end of this year if we carry on at the pace we're going. We are in the home stretch.

"The Highways team at Swindon Borough Council has been very supportive and keeps us in check, Swindon is one of the quickest builds we have done, and we are seeing really good take-up and sales - more than in many other areas.

"There's a real appetite for what we're providing."

Around 20 connections a day are being installed, and 3,500 customers have already signed up to boost their broadband with one of 13 available internet providers.

CityFibre contractors carry out work in Swindon (Image: Newsquest)

While workers dug up roads to put the new infrastructure in place, residents have accused them of blocking drives and doing a shoddy job of resurfacing the roads and pavements after that section of the street is sorted.

Neil added: “It’s a very complex and often disruptive process. We try to use half existing BT infrastructure and half new trenching. We do appreciate that there has been some disruption and some angry residents, we apologise for that disruption.

"We hope it's short-term pain for a very long-term gain.

"Sometimes it takes longer than residents would like, sometimes residents think we've finished in an area when we haven't, we've only laid temporary reinstatement and will be coming back to finish it off.

"The scars do weather over time to look closer to the surrounding tarmac and more in-keeping to the rest of the road or pavement."

Last summer, the Adver revealed that Swindon Borough Council had issued CityFibre with an undisclosed number of fines for work that was not “up to standard”.

Mr Madle added: "There's an ongoing process of inspections and if something is raised as a defect then it has to get resolved.

"There are so many inspections of these works that we have to make sure we're up to standard and are called to account if we're not.

"With fixed penalty notices, the council sees something that - either the contractor has worked beyond a permitted period or the contractor has taken too long to get packed away before they go.

"It's a routine part of what we do, it wasn't anything exceptional, it happens with every project. In an ideal world, you'd always want to avoid them but this is a very complex project with various companies involved and there are lots of things that can go wrong, which we try to limit."

A report by the company estimates that, over a fifteen-year period, the positive impacts of CityFibre’s investment in Swindon will include £335m in productivity and innovation gains, £74m from a widened workforce, £10m in local authority efficiency savings and £150m in increased housing value.