The Tendring Business Leaders Association (TBLA), founded and hosted by Clacton and Colchester-based businesses, Thompson Smith and Puxon Solicitors and Jamesons Accountants, met for lunch on Monday 17 July 2017 at the Lifehouse Hotel and Spa in Thorpe-le-Soken.
Alan Brown, Managing Director at Jamesons Accountants, introduced guest speakers Karen Turnbull and Steven Eke of Colchester Borough Council who shared with the group the Council’s exciting news about bringing Ultrafast broadband to Colchester Town Centre and their ambitious plans to expand on its current availability.
In a nutshell the repurposing of the existing Colchester Town Centre CCTV infrastructure has allowed the Council to deploy a fibre network for less than 10% of the cost of installing a comparable infrastructure from scratch, and to make Ultrafast broadband available to over 850 businesses and 1,000 households at extremely competitive prices. This has helped facilitate the development of the Council’s Digital Strategy, which covers a five-year period and which will be published later this summer, setting out plans to extend full-fibre access to the Borough’s key economic development and regeneration zones.
The Town Centre deployment gives Colchester a head start over many comparable local authorities now competing for inward investment in key tech sectors, including creative and digital, and puts Colchester firmly on the radar of central government . The team are also working with education and training institutions to deliver the right skills locally, with engineering a key priority.
The group enjoyed an excellent meal provided by the Lifehouse, and Thompson Smith and Puxon Senior Partner, Mary Anne Fedeyko, closed the meeting and thanked Karen and Steven for their excellent and informative talk. The presentation given by Karen and Steven can be downloaded here.
For more information about the Tendring Business Leaders Association please contact either Nicola Crisell, nicola.crisell@tsplegal.com or Christine Brown, christine@jamesons.net.
