WE"RE just emerging from a period of house arrest, writes Dave Kent.

We live in Newnham-beyond-the-tracks, a forgotten rural backwater on a single-track road to nowhere.

There are no pavements for pedestrians, but there are overgrown hedges, blind bends and, and most importantly, there were no gigabytes squirming around in underground cables to enable fast information contact with the rest of the world.

However, the gigabyte deficiency is currently being sorted out by a company called Gigaclear, which hires companies to dig trenches and lay cables to connect us to the exciting external world of high tec and instant knowledge and wisdom. 

But to do this the single-track road, our only connection to central Newnham and the outside world, has to be dug up to lay these cables.

This was the opening paragraph of my heart-rending story in Forest View of 4th October. 

But after a week of inconvenience, the work was completed, gigabytes are flowing freely, and road and information connections to the outside world was resumed.

But, shortly after the successful outcome to this issue, it was decided that the road to our remote part of the forest had to be repaired.

I’m not sure what consultation takes place between the various agencies which need to dig up roads. 

Might it not be possible for the creation of gigabyte channels and the repairing of roads to take place in one operation?

We are again forced to choose between leaving our vehicles in the middle of the village and walking from there to home and back or to hibernate in the remote rural outlying greater Newnham for the duration of the work. 

We couldn’t hibernate, as we were off on a holiday, but the friendly workmen saw us through.

The centre of Newnham is always short of parking places, and the increased pressure on limited parking for all Newnham residents and visitors means that it is not only the remote inhabitants who are affected by these works.

The workmen for both projects have been very helpful. 

They are considerate, friendly, informative and eager to minimise inconvenience to residents, holding up operations where necessary and possible, shepherding pedestrians through molten tarmac and dealing with fallen telegraph poles that blocked the one-track road. 

Pity about the planning strategy, which seemed to be somewhat inefficient.

I understand that remote rural roads will be resurfaced at least once every 80 years, so I hope that the Gloucestershire County Council Roads Department have got a plan to coordinate their next road repair works in this area by year 2103.