‘At last night’s Borough council meeting Labour councillors refused to take action to improve broadband speeds in rural areas, including the Ironbridge Gorge.
Eric Carter said it was vital for rural businesses that action should be taken urgently. In the Gorge, which is a World Heritage site and which brings £ millions into the area, it is vital for the hospitality trade that broadband speed is improved.
When in power the Conservatives planned to increase speeds in rural areas in partnership with Shropshire but this was stopped when Labour came to power – and since then they have had no plans to increase broadband speeds in the rural areas.’
Eric made the following statement;-
1. Does cabinet member and his colleagues think the rural areasof T&W is less important than that of Shropshire Council?
2 If not why have this Authority rejected the opportunity to work with BT via the Connecting Shropshire project?.
3. T&W remain one of only three BDUK funded Councils who are not delivering a broadband project to rural areas.
4. The original allocation of BDUK funding is still available and can be accessed via the "change control" process without having to run a full procurement again.
5. In the document headed Marches LEP European Structural &Investment Funds strategy, date Sept 2013 there are clear opportunities to identify funding via the LEP to proceed with a bid.
6. In the Gorge area alone there over 1000 small businesses with little or no broadband access, particularly in the tourism industry. This area often called the "jewel in the crown" of our borough needs the Council to act, and to act now.
7. Self employment is high with micro-businesses accounting for 90.4°/o of employment, with 86°/o employing fewer than 10people.
8 Now that we have a Telford businesses man, Graham Wynne, as the Chair of the LEP we should be putting forward proposals that will ensure we are not left behind in the drive for greater connectivity to the internet.
9 The visitor economy generates more than £1billion, employs over 33,000 & accounts for more than 15°/o of our GDP.
10 Item 2.2 of the report states that one of our weaknesses is poor superfast broadband and mobile phone infrastructure, exacerbating the issue around accessing services in rural areas.
11 Under 2.4 shows one of the main barriers to growth is this poor connectivity in rural areas
12 Item 8.1.4 states Providing access to and encouragi ng the optimisation of High Speed Broadband is a key element in enhancing the growth of businesses in the Marches Economic Area.
13 Via the Growing Places fund and EU structural funding we do not require T&W to borrow to provide this urgently needed upgrade to our broadband accessabi lity. We need to bid via the LEP to work joi ntly with Shropshire Council and Iwill be seeking to do exactly this over the next few days.
14 In the recently published update to the Shaping Places strategy,the need for high Speed broadband was not even acknowledged until Ipointed this out at the Housing,Regen and Environment Scrutiny meeting last week.
15 Cornwall has recently undergone programme giving them 80°/o access.