High speed pain

There are indeed a large number of rural communities without access to high speed broadband and a quick search on the www.hampshiresuperfastbroadband.

com website shows that there are still many areas that will be without this essential business facility beyond 2018.

There is at least some consolation for Mr Rippon in that Barton Stacey (and a large part of Longparish too) is due to get high speed broadband in the Wave 2 phase of broadband roll-out.

Although frustratingly this isn’t scheduled for completion until 2016-2018.

However, please spare a though for the residents of the larger part of Whewell who don’t yet have a date when they will be connected.

It is of course BT who supplies the high speed infrastructure and if a commercial case can’t be made, they have been relying on contributions, including from the county council for funding.

However, there is one fundamental problem that could be resolved by a change in the law. To achieve this I ask that residents contact their Member of Parliament directly.

At the moment, whenever new developments are permitted, the local planning authority, your borough council, can normally enter into a legally binding agreement that requires a developer to pay for new community facilities.

These often include new play areas, footpaths and road improvements, but currently it is not possible to require a contribution from the developer for broadband connections.

Please join me in writing to either Kit Malthouse MP or Caroline Nokes MP to ask that they put pressure on the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark MP) to get the planning law changed so that funding can be secured whenever new development is permitted.

While of course this alone won’t solve the problem, it would at least give the rural communities some financial support (and an incentive to BT) for getting high speed broadband delivered to many more village homes and businesses.

Cllr David Drew, Harewood ward