In recent months there has what could be described as a campaign against CBN, its members, and the organisations it works with and supports. The focus of this campaign is primarily the authors of two websites:

• http://5tth.blogspot.com/
• http://www.fibrestream.co.uk/

It should be noted that both of these authors, Guy Jarvis and Lindsay Annison, were active members of CBN in the past. Ms Annison’s work as membership officer for CBN with responsibility for the website came to a close when the mentoring programme ended. Mr Jarvis resigned from the board of CBN when it became apparent that his current business activities were in conflict with his duties as a board member of CBN. He resigned at a time when CBN had resolved to facilitate the creation of INCA as a new and separate organisation to take forward the work of representing independent networks - a role which CBN no longer feels it is able to undertake, and something the board approved unanimously with the exception Mr Jarvis.

The most recent move in this campaign has been a question posed by Lord Laird in parliament which is asking the government to request that the National Audit Office should investigate the "formation, management and accounts" of CBN and for previous years' accounts to be submitted.

Lord Laird has to the best of our knowledge never been in touch with or had any other dealings with CBN. Had he requested this information from us  the Board of CBN would have happily obliged.

In answer to his specific concerns:

• CBN has submitted all its accounts as required by the FSA (as a cooperative society, CBN is regulated by the FSA rather than Companies House).
• There is no on-going investigation by the FSA into CBN. Mr Jarvis is aware of this but persists with this rumour.
• CBN has not been in receipt of public funds since 2004 so it’s unclear what the National Audit Office might investigate were they to respond to Lord Laird’s request. Two of the recipients of funds under the original funding programme were the authors of the above blogs.
• CBN is undertaking some work for the newly formed INCA which does have Government support. This assistance during the foundation of INCA is open to scrutiny and is being done with the knowledge of the relevant civil servants in the Department for Innovation Business and Skills.

The directors of CBN have grown increasingly concerned at this campaign and hope this post helps to draw it to a close.