Fibre is the Future
A positive meeting between members of the Better Broadband for Piltown (BBFP) committee and Kilkenny LEADER Partnership (KLP) took place at the Community Centre. Declan Rice, representing KLP, commended the committee on their execution of the Expression of Interest. Also present were members of the Piltown Community Enterprise and John Graves, fibre-optic network designer.
Although the principal purpose of the meeting was to hand over the completed Expression of Interest survey it was also to further clarify the many hurdles and challenges that lay ahead.
KLP acknowledged that €30K was available to the community to complete a feasibility study for the ambitious project. Upon completion, the community should have a concise development plan that they can use to attract financial backing and support.
Regarding the topic of EU funding for such a project KLP admitted it was unlikely that this funding would make its way to community based project such as this but underlined the probability that local businesses, angel investors and philanthropists would be willing to support and buy-in if the development plan was a success.
Should the Expression of Interest be accepted as sufficient to proceed with the feasibility study, the committee has to appoint a local officer. The purpose of this local officer is to liaise with the network designers and each and every household and business in the community to establish an overall agreement for a workable route for this fibre cable route.