Leadhills

Apparently, it’s official. Leadhills is the coldest village in the UK.

I must own up to being a bit late picking this one up – though it’s something I’ve suspected for a long time. In the wake of the Scottish Water upgrade, this little gem appeared at the Beeb:

Freeze-prone water pipes in Leadhills replaced

It seems the latest thirty year climate period has bestowed this dubious distinction upon Leadhills; like we didn’t know already. This little known nugget is cited by the Scottish Water production manager responsible for the Leadhills upgrade, in the above Beeb report.

So what do we feel about this recognition of yet another Leadhills “first”; to join the Subscription library, highest village (until Wanlockhead got it – we’re working on that) and highest golf course, etc.?

Me? I’d go for proud with frosty spells.

Get your entry form here or click the poster.

After all the hassles surrounding the poor Vodafone signal, way back July, August last year; we now have choice.

This may be old news to some – perhaps many of you – but here goes. I was chewing the cud with Keith a few weeks ago and he told me that he was able to get a good signal using his old Orange sim. Well, a few weeks previously, I got a message from Virgin Mobile, which uses the T-Mobile network, to the effect that I could now use the Orange network too. Yea, lo and behold, I now have five bars as I step out my front door on Ramsay Road! Vodafone was never that good.

So what this boils down to is that armed with an Orange, T-Mobile or Virgin phone, or any others with access to the Orange network, you get a sound 2G signal over much of Leadhills and Wanlockhead.

It would seem that when dealing with Vodafone with regard to their poor performance over recent months, a mention of the competition might be called for. Vodafone users now have some leverage.

The climb up to Glengonnar Halt from the Nithsdale Valley and Lowther Hill have been included in a new book for cyclists that describes the toughest road hillclimbs in Lowland Scotland.  The Cyclist’s Guide to Hillclimbs on Scottish Lowland Roads is the result of more than two years of field visits and research by Scottish author John McKendrick. According to the author, “The book aims to encourage more cyclists to rise to the challenge of road hillclimbing and provides them with the key information needed to tackle each climb. It would be nice to think that with the inclusion of these local climbs in the book, more visitors will think about cycling in the Leadhills”.

In the book, the climb up the climb up to Glengonnar Halt from the Nithsdale Valley is described as starting from the road junction of the A76/B797 at Mennock and rises to the cattle grid at Glengonnar Halt, climbing 1237 feet in 7.2 miles, at an average gradient of 3.3%. Lowther Hill might be even tougher! It is described as starting from Hidden Treasures in Walockhead, and rises to the summit of Lowther Hill, climbing 1152 feet in 2.9 miles, at an average gradient of 7.6% (although public access to this climb is limited). There is no doubt that both climbs are worthy of being listed among the toughest road hillclimbs in Lowland Scotland!

There is a section of the book devoted to climbs in Dumfries and Galloway. The book should be available from local bookshops and cycle shops.  More information can also be found by visiting the publisher’s website at http://www.pocketmountains.com.

(With thanks to John McKendrick)

It seems the Vodafone signal has reappeared as mysteriously as it disappeared. As yet, there is no further information from Vodafone as to why the signal became so unreliable.

In the meantime, Vodafone Customer Service Advisor, Lynn McGrath, has made good on her offer of a free Sure Signal unit for the First Responders; to be trialled by Rab McCafferty.

Whilst most of us would be delighted to hear what the problem was, it seems that even Vodafone has been unable to come up with answers, but where Lynn is concerned, it has not been for want of effort. Lynn entered the fray about a week after the saga started and deserves credit for being the first (and only) of my many Vodafone contacts to make a real effort to find out what was going on.

It may well be that with the various construction activities ongoing on the Wind-farm, that this had something or everything to do with the problem. But as work progresses and the lay of the land changes, the actual cause of our signal problems may never be determined; being consigned to history under a forest of turbines. We shall see.

Be that as it may, thanks are due to Lynn for giving us a hearing and trying to get to the bottom of things – more than can be said for many.

The latest from Vodafone Customer services is more positive, though stops short of immediate answers. Whatever the problem is, their representative seems at pains to assure us that they are working the problem and will tell us what is causing our regular drop out as soon as they find out. What happens then is matter of conjecture.

On a more positive note, Vodafone’s representative has offered a free Sure Signal for the First Responders. It’s understood that this may be of limited benefit, but I’ll let team decide.

Here’s Vodafone’s latest reply:

Dear Mr Fuller

Thank you for you email

Please accept my apologies if the information regarding the dropped calls wasn’t very informative, I have today again spoke to our technical team, they can see screen shots every 15 mins, they have advised in the last 15 mins there had been 8 calls made and only 1 failed. 108 data connections and no failures.

We are aware that the coverage is very poor in the area and we can put a request in for another site, however there is no guarantee this would be approved and if it was it would take a long time for the site to be ready.

I understand that you would like to know where the cell site is, however for the security of the site we don’t give this information out.

I appreciate that you and the community want answers and I only wish I could tell you that the coverage is going to improve, but I can’t. I appreciate that you have the first responder team, and I can offer a sure signal free of charge, however this will only work if the users have 3 g handsets, have the internet at the location and it will only let up to 4 users log on to the sure signal and it will depend on the speed of the internet. This is a device that is placed in 1 spot so can’t be moved around and wouldn’t benefit people who are out looking for people who have gone missing ect.

We can look at individual customers to see if they would benefit from a sure signal, they would have to contact us and we would look at each case on a separate basis.

I can of course keep you updated on any progress made with the cell site and what the engineer finds, and I am trying to find out who I can talk to regarding any improvements to he signal as we speak.

I hope that I have answered at least some of your questions and if and when I hear anything I will email you Mr Fuller.

Kind Regards

And my reply:

Thank you for your reply.

It does seem that our signal is lasting a bit longer, though until the cause of drop out is identified, it’s very much a case of see how things go.

Your offer of a Sure Signal is appreciated – I will convey that to the first Responders team. Your offer to convey the findings of engineers to us is also appreciated; this will give individual residents the opportunity to plan ahead on the basis of firm and reliable information.

Thank you for your efforts and I look forward to hearing from you as information becomes available.

Best regards,

Mike Fuller.

I’ll be firing an email to someone who can speak for the First Responders, but feel free to get in touch.

The Leadhills Panto Group is sorry to announce that the 2011 Panto is delayed indefinitely – with respect to 2011 anyway.

We have seven in the cast, we need a minimum of twelve plus stage hands. As time is getting on, we are reluctant to commit to this year’s Panto with so small a group – there seems to be little likelihood of getting a complete group in time.

Our options are as follows:

• Hope that in the next few weeks fresh faces commit to this year’s Panto while we still have time to pick it up – perhaps aiming for January 2012 instead of December 2011. If you can make this year contact Mike here or speak to Lee Gilmore at the Bear Shop.
• Put this year’s script away till early next year and aim for December 2012.

Hopefully we will see the Leadhills Panto return to the village hall, sooner rather than later, but we must get a cast first. If you can contribute on stage or back stage, please get in touch with any group member or through the contact page.

Lee Gilmore, Mike Davis, Mike Fuller, Sue Roberts, Vicky Cumming, Linda Wright and Teresa Brasier. The Panto Group.

Latest from Vodafone:

Dear Mr Fuller

Thank you for your email regarding the coverage in your area

Please accept my apologies if we have said your homes are in the Scottish Highlands.

From reading your email I understand that you used to have coverage, until a while ago where you neighbours found that the coverage was very intermittent.

I have spoken to our 3rd line technical team and as your web site correctly states there has been a case open for this area for 5 day’s now, this is a feeder site, after my colleague checked the site today for me he advised that there has been 3 dropped calls today so far which would be acceptable considering how poor the coverage is in the area. This could also be down to the fact that people were trying to make calls at the same time which would cause congestion and in turn cause the calls to drop

If there is building work going on that is in the path of the mast this could indeed effect your signal, along with trees growing and I appreciate that this sounds like an excuse but this is very true, obviously in the summer the trees grow so is can also lead to the signal being blocked.

As a network we can’t guarantee 100% coverage 100 % of the time

I appreciate that this might not be what your friends want to hear Mr Fuller; however we don’t have a timescale for the coverage to improve

We are sending an engineer out to visit the site that has a case raised against in the near future, however at this present time we don’t have a resolution for you friends.

Kind Regards

I guess we’ll be sending that big complaint after all.

There is a petition/survey in the Village Shop regarding the loss of signal. If you have not already done so, add your name to it or contact me and I’ll forward details to Angie Purse.

In the meantime, I have replied to this latest reply pointing out, among other things, that whilst we appreciate that 100% service is not guaranteed – we have experienced outages from time to time – this is goes beyond “not 100%”, this is more off than on. Where does one draw the line?

Mike’s reply:

Thank you for your reply. It seems we may be getting closer to a resolution.

I would however, like to sort out a few things:

1. The open case is probably that of Sue (no idea of her Surname) or Emma ******* (2260627).
2. The number of dropped calls is not very informative unless compared with the number of successful calls – bare in mind that few people are currently able to make calls at all so 3 dropped calls may be 10%, 25%, 75% or even 100% of all calls?
3. Largely speaking, the likelihood of multiple simultaneous calls from the Lowther Hills is slim – at least half the local phones go off with their owners to work, school or college. During holiday periods, the local kids can see each other easily, no one lives more than two miles from anyone else who also lives in Leadhills/Wanlockhead. Most of the kids are willing and keen to go out – it’s that kind of place. But of course, no signal – no calls.
4. The building work could indeed be an issue if the mast serving our area is close to the Clydesdale Wind Farm. Given the heavy lifting involved in that project and the apparent “on/off” signal status, it may well be that a large crane is spending long periods in line with the service mast. It would be useful to know the whereabouts of the mast – we can soon see what’s around it, we’re closer.
5. On this occasion, I suspect tree growth is less likely to be the issue as the change in service status has been abrupt.
6. We, as a community, remain concerned that our First Responder teams are currently without effective communication – they did not choose Vodafone expecting to be let down.
7. We as a community want answers. On his visit, your engineer may well discover what is causing this drop out of signal and may find that there is no practical short-term solution, short of uprooting the mast – especially if the problem is connected with the wind farm. This we can understand. We would like to be advised of any such discovery – like most people, we don’t like being kept in the dark and will not tolerate it indefinitely. Unwelcome answers are far preferable to vague or non-specific answers or indeed, no answers. Keep us informed and we’re far more likely to keep the faith.
8. Needless to say, I will be happy to publish or otherwise convey, any information relating to the cause(s) of our Vodafone outages. Last I heard around lunchtime today, is that the signal is back. We’ll see how it goes.

Best regards,

Mike Fuller.

Just heard that a Station Road resident has been told we [Leadhills and Wanlockhead] are a PRIORITY and has been given a JOB NUMBER by Vodafone. Bit like winning the lottery.

Could this be the beginning of the end – or the end of the beginning?

I would love to publish this with a photo of the lucky winner and some personal comments on how he/she managed it and how this might be a life-changing experience, blah, blah, blah……

I have today received a reply to my last email to Vodafone (see Vodafone Update: And Wanlockhead Too). Suffice to say, this has not heralded the salvation of the local network signal – far from it, it seems they know not where we are. Judge for yourselves.

Hello Mike,

Thank you for contacting Vodafone Customer Support. I am sorry to learn that you are unable to access our services for sometime in the signal site in your area.

We aim to provide you with the services at all times, but owing to the nature of mobile telecommunications, it is impossible to provide a fault free service. The quality and coverage of the services depends partly on your mobile phone, partly on the Vodafone network and partly on other telecommunications networks to which the Vodafone network is connected.

The services might be adversely affected by too many people trying to use the network at the same time, physical features such as buildings and under passes and by atmospheric conditions or other causes of interference and may fail or require maintenance without notice.

I can confirm that there is no ongoing issue in your area. I can see that there is variable 2G network in your area (IV27 4RU) [Lairg, the Highlands - 298 miles from Leadhills]. In this case, if you want you can raise a request to enhance the network from the following link:

_http://help.vodafone.co.uk/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&PARTITION_ID=1&CONFIGURATION=1000&ARTICLE_ID=2908&CURRENT_CMD=BROWSE_TOPIC&SIDE_LINK_TOPIC_ID=1012&SIDE_LINK_SUB_TOPIC_ID=1103&SIDE_LINK_TOPIC_INDEX=null&SIDE_LINK_SUB_TOPIC_INDEX=null

I trust this information is helpful.

Kind regards,

****** ********
Vodafone Customer Services

Here is my reply:

Dear Sir,

I will now try to explain the purpose and reality of my previous communications as it is apparent that I am either: misunderstood or: my communications are not being read in full.

1. Leadhills and Wanlockhead are two villages, a mile apart in the Lowther Hills of Southern Scotland – nowhere near the Scottish Highlands.

2. Both villages have been served by Vodafone for many years with a modest to strong signal, depending on the elevation of the location of the user. Elevations within Leadhills vary by up to 150 feet for individual dwellings, in Wanlockhead, by up to 300 feet – the hills are steep.

3. Both Villages are in the ML12 6** area, example post codes are: ML12 6YA in Leadhills and ML12 6UZ in Wanlockhead.

4. Both Villages have had a prolonged loss of service, now standing at 13 days apart from brief periods when signal has appeared over the past two days. Only by climbing up to 600 feet into the surrounding hills can a usable signal be found.

5. This is affecting some 250 households equating to between 500 and 600 local Vodafone users – adults, children and the First Responders teams.

6. I am not a Vodafone customer – I gave my Vodafone away as I hate being permanently contactable and I don’t like Vodafone’s customer relations – I have a Virgin phone that only works 4 miles out of Leadhills..

7. I am making enquiries on behalf of the people who have contacted me through my website: http://www.leadhillsonline.org.uk. They have all, repeat: ALL, complained to Vodafone, they have all been told there is no problem, they have all been told there have been no other complaints, they have all been told their phones are probably the problem. I have been contacted directly by several villagers. A neighbour of mine has found many others with the same complaint; hence the intention of villagers to make a written joint formal complaint.

8. Your last email gives our area as having a 2G variable service, post code IV27 4RU. That mast is at Lairg in the Highlands which is 298 miles away from Leadhills by the shortest road route – so it is clearly NOT our area. Therefore, We fail to see how you can state that there is no ongoing service issue when clearly, you have no idea where we are.

9. My reference to the Clydesdale Wind Farm was made to present for your consideration, the possibility that the construction works ongoing there may be impacting on Vodafone’s service. If you cannot locate Leadhills or Wanlockhead, then finding one of the largest Wind Farm developments in Europe may also be tricky.

10. Needless to say, I am a stickler for documentary evidence and am compiling a dossier of communications, connected with this ongoing service issue, to be forwarded to our Local MP and MSP and to OFCOM.

11. We require that Vodafone properly identify our location, properly identify the cause of service interruption and then rectify the problem or explain to the several hundred local users why this cannot or will not be done.

Finally, I will publish your email along with my reply on my web site – this provides feedback to both affected villages and will no doubt be the source of great amusement with Vodafone’s apparent ignorance of their own infrastructure.

Best regards,

Mike Fuller.

Back now to the waiting game. Anyone in Leadhills or Wanlockhead with problems with Vodafone signal, please contact me with your Name, Vodafone Number and Post Code, for inclusion in the Joint Complaint.