Shropshire Council to bid for broadband funding
Shropshire could benefit from government funding for broadband improvement.
A bid will be made for cash for improving broadband in the more rural areas.
Shropshire Council says it will be making the case for the prioritisation of premises without access to superfast broadband of at least 30mbps.
The Government is undertaking a ‘call for evidence’ to help with its national decision-making and funding allocation for improving broadband to all UK premises, wherever they may be.
It is focusing its request for evidence on the most difficult to reach, which are called the ‘Very Hard to Reach’ premises and are often in the most rural areas of the UK.
Shropshire Council believes some of these premises will be in Shropshire.
Rob Gittins, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for digital, technology, data and insight, said: "In order to support the Government with their continued business case for investment for improved broadband in the most rural areas, we believe it would be helpful for people living in these ‘Very Hard to Reach’ premises to feed back to the Government.
Objective
"Making digital the preferred way to work and transact is a key organisation objective, but with more services moving online we know that this leaves households and businesses in these areas one step further behind. Our objective is intrinsically linked to others including focus on outcomes for customers and putting Shropshire back into the community. But first we need to reach customers and communities, wherever they may be located.
“In our own response, we will be referring to the actions that we have already implemented, and will also provide evidence on the barriers and challenges of delivering improved broadband infrastructure in such a rural county with widely dispersed premises.
“The more up to date the information is that the Government has, and the more that it has from rural counties such as ourselves, the more it will bring the rural realities and business case to life.”
The Government has developed an online survey to provide an evidence base of benefits of having better connectivity.
The ‘call for evidence’ survey closes on June 11 with details at gov.uk/government/consultations/improving-broadband-for-very-hard-to-reach-premises
Shropshire Council says it remains committed to its long-term aspiration of providing superfast broadband to all premises in the Shropshire Council area. To date, 98.2 per cent of premises have access to superfast broadband, with over 68,000 premises directly benefitting from the Connecting Shropshire programme.
