Still seems that Virgin have provided fiber to parts of the street, So I guess part of the story is correct.
Most of Basingstoke has Virgin Media cable through coax, could it be that? VM are very good at marketing their services as "fibre" because they are fast.
VM expansion in the UK is using fibre connectivity, but converting to coax at the home, so the same TV box, and cable modem ("hub") can be used. It is possible if some previously not served streets have VM added, that VM installed fibre to do this.
20 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM