Council invests £360k in fast broadband bid

Melton councillors have agreed to contribute £360,000 from capital receipts to a multi-million pound campaign to connect the ‘final third’ of the county population – up to 190,000 people – without access to broadband.

The Government-backed scheme aims to ensure that all of the UK has access to the best broadband connectivity in Europe by 2015.

Leicestershire County Council’s vision is to deliver superfast broadband to all premises in the county by 2017 with 90 per cent being delivered by 2015.

It has allocated £4m to more than match the Government’s allocation of £3m for Leicestershire.

District and borough councils are also being asked to contribute and match funding will then come from either BT or Fujitsu. The total scheme is expected to cost about £20m.

The provision of superfast broadband is seen as crucial to the recovery of the UK economy, to improve consumer choice and combat rural isolation.

Bryon Rhodes, leader of Melton Council, said: “All the money we need to take the superfast broadband campaign forward for the borough is now in place.

“We are now waiting for the green light from Government agency Broadband UK to sign up a contractor and we hope progress can be made from as early as this autumn.

“Melton is the first district council in Leicestsershire to approve its contribution so we should be first in the queue and that is what we are saying to the county council.

“The broadband service in many of our villages, especially in the Vale of Belvoir, is variable and we are determined to put that right and give communities and businesses a real boost.”

So called ‘slow spots’ and ‘not spots’ can be viewed at www.leics.gov.uk/leicestershire_broadband_connectivity_maps.pdf