Surrey County Council fails on broadband target, say Lib Dems
Surrey County Council has announced today that it has failed to meet its target to deliver a Superfast Broadband service to almost 100% of residential properties in Surrey. Furthermore it is planning to drop this target following a county council report which has revealed that 15,300 Surrey properties in the Intervention Area are unable to access Superfast Broadband. The county council's plans to increase the number of premises able to receive Superfast Broadband will not achieve 100% coverage and will take two years to deliver.
Cllr Hazel Watson, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council said today:
"The investment announced today is insufficient to enable all 15,300 properties in the Intervention Area without access to Superfast Broadband to receive a service. This contradicts the original plans by the county council which was to provide almost 100% coverage of Superfast Broadband across Surrey. The original plan has been watered down to reflect the fact that insufficient funding has been allocated by the county council to complete the necessary work. A value for money criteria will be applied when the county council decides which properties will receive Superfast Broadband. This undoubtedly means that more rural areas will miss out. This is doubly unfair as it is the rural areas that are also least likely to have a mobile phone signal.
"The county council's alternative strategy for those properties that cannot receive Superfast Broadband is to investigate satellite, wireless or mobile services or to co-ordinate and help self-fund a community initiative. This shows that the county council still fails to understand the problem as remote areas without Superfast Broadband often do not have a mobile signal and therefore the alternative means of provision do not exist.
"In this digital age, Superfast Broadband is a necessity to access Government information and services. It is a basic utility which must be provided to all Surrey premises. I am therefore calling for the county council to provide more funding to enable 100% Superfast Broadband coverage in Surrey and for the work to be accelerated so that residents do not have to wait two years for this vital service".
Notes
The cabinet report on Superfast Broadband can be found here: