Superfast Broadband good news

Connecting Cheshire secures additional funding for rural superfast fibre broadband roll-out

An extra £643,000 has been awarded to Connecting Cheshire by the Government to reach around 1,000 additional rural premises with superfast fibre broadband.
The funding has been provided to cover premises in four 'hard to reach' locality areas:

• Burleydam & Audlem;
• Arley & Antrobus;
• Huxley;
• Gawsworth, North Rode and Wincle.

While we have not received specific information about the 'Audlem' area listed above, we assume it will be those parts such as Bagley Lane and Kinsey Heath that are not covered by the initial roll-out thought to be in late Summer this year covering the rest of Audlem and Hankelow.

Specific coverage details will be confirmed once BT completes its technical surveys of the areas and develops the optimal roll-out plan to reach as many premises as possible within the confines of the funding.

The additional coverage will be provided under an extension to the current Connecting Cheshire programme being rolled-out by BT Openreach in partnership with four Cheshire councils covering Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington.

Faster and more-reliable broadband services have been proven to benefit all elements of the community, from the elderly and vulnerable to small businesses and home workers.

Councillor David Brown, Deputy Leader of Cheshire East Council, on behalf of the Connecting Cheshire Partnership said: "This is great news for the project and a real boost to these communities who have campaigned tirelessly to make the case for faster broadband.

"With their help we were able to convince the government that fibre broadband is now essential for the social and economic sustainability of these communities. I would especially like to thank all those who helped us demonstrate high levels of support for this application by securing hundreds of demand registrations across their communities.

"The message to everyone is to register your interest in wanting superfast broadband – to help influence future funding applications."

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.