A VOLUNTEER who gave her time to ensure her community had access to fast internet has been honoured by the Queen.

A has been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, for services to the community.

B4RN volunteer Val Winchester, who lives in Chapel-le-Dale, Ingleton, has spent years giving her own time to make sure the community got connected to B4RN’s gigabit full fibre broadband and has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for her efforts.

She will receive the award at a later date and also has a Buckingham Palace garden party to look forward to.

“It's been fascinating and rewarding - especially when I learn what B4RN has enabled the community to do that was previously impossible or difficult and when I think of future opportunities it opens up such as in community medicine,” she said.

“In many ways B4RN enables the community to participate fully in 21st century life - and I was so pleased that much of the dale had B4RN before the pandemic struck.”

Ms Winchester was quick to credit the whole community.

“Many farmers dug for shares and even people who weren’t interested in B4RN got involved,” she said.

“People would dig their own gardens and for neighbours – ready to help in two work parties, if you called on them. It was a joint project and I worked with Councillor David Ireton, as cochampions, during phase one of the project.”

Ms Winchester first got involved with B4RN in 2016 after a meeting with then CEO Barry Forde in Ingleton. Six years on and the local network stretches between Millbank in Ingleton to Colt Park, High Gayle and Newby Head.

She says much of her role was coordination – raising funds, gaining permissions, organising work parties and encouraging involvement.

“One neighbour teased me, calling, ‘here comes the gaffer’ when I turned up! I wrote lots of emails - more than 2,500 – but also spent a lot of time in muddy holes, joining ducting,” she said.

“The kids down the road. Two of them in the family and the [previous] broadband wasn’t fast enough.

“They’d have to wait. One would do their homework, then the other. Meanwhile, one farmer had a lot of cattle and very unreliable broadband. His cows were fitted with sensors, so he knew when they were going to calve. He needed the reliability.”

Ms Winchester said it felt nice to feel useful.

“You get to know people,” she said.

“I found it very rewarding. I initially trained in landscape architecture. This is basically project management, so I liked reviving that bit. The infrastructure is like plumbing – you have to see ‘how will that get to there?’ – I enjoyed it.”