At our AGM following on from our public meeting on Better Broadband. We were delighted to welcome John Riddell (The Fat Fox Inn) and Francesca Holmes-Smith (The Granary Deli) to our Executive Committee who join Tom Calnan (Calnan Brothers), Louise Stile (Bella Luce), Robin Holmes-Smith (The Granary Deli), David Cotterell (Apex Healthcare Consulting), Loraine Daniels (Bella Luce), Denise Allnut (SKP Solutions), Amanda Hinton (K is for Kitchen) and Steph Van de Pette (Watlington Parish Council) who were all re-elected to the committee. Sam Swanson (Chiltern Pet Partners) stepped down from her role on the committee and was thanked for her contribution.

We adopted an updated constitution which will help guide us through this period of anticipated growth and increased activity. You can download a copy of the constitution here.

We were delighted to be able to present cheques to both Watlington Youth Club and the First Steps Family Hubs for £200 each. The donations were made from the proceeds of our hugely successful Christmas Market which promises to be even bigger and better this year! We are always looking for more volunteers to help with organising the market. If you can spare an hour or two on the day or would like to help with the coordination in the run up to the event please contact Robin at The Granary Deli.

If you would like to join the Business Association to benefit from the many perks that membership provides, click here to complete our membership form.
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We hosted a public meeting at The Social on Thursday 4 April with representatives from Oxfordshire County Council’s Better Broadband Team, Openreach and Gigaclear.

Watlington currently benefits from superfast broadband, which means there are fibre cables connecting the telephone exchange to the various green cabinets. However, the connection from the green cabinet to your property was not upgraded meaning you will still have old, likely degraded, copper wire for the final part the internet’s journey to your property. This may be affecting the speed and reliability of your internet connection.

Through a Government scheme, called the Gigabit voucher scheme, businesses (including sole traders and home based businesses) are entitled to up £2,500 towards a fibre to the premises (FTTP) connection with up to 10 residential properties then being able to claim another £500 each. The cumulative value of these vouchers could be enough to install FTTP connections in the whole of Watlington.
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WBA will be submitting a proposal to Watlington Parish Council’s Strategy Committee this month to progress this as a community based project. It will need support from as many local businesses and residents as possible so please do express your interest by emailing [email protected]. ​