There may yet be a brighter future ahead for residents currently
left behind on the information super highway thanks to lack of exchange
and cabinet fibre upgrades.
Funding for this work has
been made available in the past by the Coalition Government through BD UK
with an initial budget allocation of £700,000 for Telford & Wrekin.
Inexplicably these funds were refused by the ruling Labour administration, which claimed it was unable to afford the match funding
involved (that's the same administration which has just conjured up a pot
of £13 million for various vanity projects in its favorite parts of the
Borough). Telford & Wrekin was one of just four local authorities in
the entire country to decline the opportunity to invest in this key
business and community resource.
Government has
recently announced a further fund of £1.42 million to be available for
Telford & Wrekin through BD UK. I am most grateful to my
Conservative colleague Cllr. Eric Carter who has managed to cajole the administration into constructing a bid for these funds. Match funding
will be made possible through the Marches LEP (Local Enterprise
Partnership), who have rightly recognised the importance to business of
super-fast broadband in their strategic action plan.
All the elements are now at hand to solve the problems and there can be no excuses for non-delivery.