Super slow broadband for Audlem

Plans for superfast broadband for Audlem could be running run out of steam.

Parish councillors were told at their March meeting that there was little to report on hopes of faster Internet connections for Audlem village.

A flurry of emails has failed to throw light on where the village stands in a proposed rollout of high speed Internet connections this year.

Councillors are to press Connecting Cheshire on the latest moves to bring faster Internet speeds to the village but it looks like being a long, slow haul

A press release from Cheshire East last November raised the prospect on Audlem being included in a quick rollout of Superfast Broadband.

"European state-aid approval paves the way for the UK's £530m rural broadband scheme to start in earnest, meaning that work can begin laying the cables for local authority broadband projects all around the UK," said the press release.

The decision lifted a significant blockage on plans to deliver more than 90 per cent superfast broadband coverage across Cheshire under the Connecting Cheshire partnership, councillors were told.

Cheshire East was to match Government funding of £3.24m and pick up an anticipated £15m grant from the European Union to deploy new superfast broadband networks this year.

Rural areas like Audlem were in danger of being left behind with slower Internet speeds and villagers were urged to register their interest on the Connecting Cheshire website.

The website says 5,973 registration requests were received from individuals and more than 850 from businesses but gives no indication of who will get faster broadband or when.

An Ofcom broadband report published last December, shows download speeds nationally had risen from an average of 7.5Mbit/s a year before to 12.5Mbit/s; whereas speeds across Cheshire were a measly average of 11.6Mbit/s so it looks like Cheshire is already lagging well behind.

A village near Oxford recently pumped in £11,000 of their own money to fund an upgrade of their BT roadside cabinet to fibre, so it could be connected to an exchange two miles away, leapfrogging the regional programme to get connected much more quickly.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.