COUNCILS NEWSLETTER No  1                                                           August 2007

 

This project is now becoming a reality, and this first newsletter is to explain some matters that, from correspondence we have received, are obviously not entirely clear to everyone, as well as to bring you up to date with the project.

 

The Project Implementation Team is now up and running, the Local Councils Coordinator is Tony Gibb and for Village Halls, Mandy Stratton.  The Learning and Services Coordinator, (largely developing the Village Halls use of Broadband), is Mary Mathers, a post funded by CitizensOnLine.  

 

We are very pleased that well over 50% of the 155 parish and town councils in Dorset have already signed up for the project and a large proportion of those have already completed the Service Level Agreement (SLA) which was circulated in May. There were some misconceptions following the initial circulation, in that we asked for details of which halls were used by councils. This was to help our colleagues identify those halls which should be targeted first. To be clear, the equipment that is supplied to councils will be for the use of the councils and their clerks, not for village halls. Facilities are being offered to Village Halls entirely separately, through DCA, and it is hoped that about 60% of village halls will be connected.  The internet connection for councils will be at the clerks address or (if they have one) the council’s office. To achieve the project’s aim every parish and town council in Dorset will have a Broadband connection with a standard and unchanging “.gov” address.  Not just to improve communications, but to provide an unchanging address for every council, even when the clerk moves on.

 

HARDWARE

The selection process for the hardware supplier and Internet Service Provider (ISP) has been completed so the first batch of 33 councils will be under way very shortly.  The hardware will be supplied by Novatech Ltd and includes a laptop with an extremely high specification and with 3 year warranty. The software included will be Windows Vista and Microsoft Office Basic (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) plus AVG Anti Virus protection. Councils are given a choice of either an Epson multifunction (ie it includes a scanner/photocopier) colour printer or a Brother laser printer for higher volume work.

 

INTERNET CONNECTION

The ISP will be PIPEX Business Systems.  Those councils who already have a connection are under no obligation to change to Pipex, however they are likely to find that the package offered is extremely competitively priced with distinct benefits. A Wireless router is included (ie it doesn’t need to have a wire to connect it to the telephone) and, for £13.61 the broadband connection will additionally include 500 free minutes on the ordinary telephone line per month plus up to 20Gb of data transfer. Non–commercial webspace is also supplied

 

EMAIL ADDRESS

The project main aim has always been to provide a standardised email address for all councils in the county. This can be available alongside any existing address and how to arrange this will be explained to those with existing connections. A list of all suggested addresses is overleaf; some have had to be shortened for the sake of brevity.

 

TRAINING

Training, for those who request it, is being arranged; it will most probably be in Dorchester.

 

PROJECT FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS

As implementation batches are sorted out councils will be sent a final confirmation form asking for exact details of their requirement and confirming broadband needs. Once the prices for each batch have been confirmed there has to be an exchange of cheques, with a grant given to the council, and the councils providing cheques to the suppliers, so that the council becomes the owner of the equipment. The VAT on the purchases will be payable by the council and reclaimed in the usual manner.