Worcestershire And Shropshire Secure More Government Rural Broadband Cash

More homes and businesses in rural Worcestershire and Shropshire will be able to access superfast broadband after both counties secured additional government for the deployment of fibre in areas not covered by commercial rollouts.

Worcestershire has received £1,147,032 to supplement the existing £3.35 million it has secured from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) already, and will extend its initial target of covering 55,000 premises in the country.

Community representatives from Abberley, Defford and Besford, Honeybourne and Pebworth, Ombersley, Doverdale and Holt, Welland, Castlemorton and Birtsmorton have apparently been working for two years to secure the additional funding, which will benefit 1,400 properties.

Rural broadband coverage

Worcestershire County Council says it is delighted that it will be able to connect even more homes and businesses to the network and will work to secure more funding in the future.

“I am so pleased to be able to confirm this additional funding for Worcestershire to become further connected and enable fibre-Broadband to reach additional rural areas,” says councillor Simon Geraghty, Cabinet Member for Skills, Economy and Infrastructure. “This further funding will help us to extend that reach into more rural areas where we know this will support both residents and businesses.”

Shropshire has received an extra £1,454,257 to add another 1,000 premises to its superfast network, which will eventually connect 62,000 properties in the county and bring total fibre coverage to 93 percent of its residents. The additional properties to be covered by the new funding will only be revealed once technical surveys have been completed.

“The Connecting Shropshire programme team have worked extremely hard to bring in this additional funding, which backs up our pledge as a Council to do all we can to secure additional funding to give access to fibre based broadband to as many homes and businesses in the Council area as possible,” says Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council cabinet member for broadband.

Both Superfast Worcestershire and Connecting Shropshire are partnering with BT, which has so far won all of the public funding available from BDUK. MPs have been highly critical of the initiative, arguing it has effectively handed the telecom a rural monopoly and the Public Accounts Committee has called on the company, along with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, to be more transparent about planned coverage and costs.

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