North Yorkshire pledges £21m for superfast broadband

North Yorkshire County Council has secured a funding package worth £21m for its Superfast North Yorkshire programme.

Approximately £13m will be released from the authority’s own funds and £8m will come from national and European governments.

This is designed to bring high speed, high quality broadband connections to 95% of premises across the county.

County Councillor Don Mackenzie, North Yorkshire’s executive member for broadband, said: “This is an enviable record which makes North Yorkshire the leading authority in the country for the reach of its high speed broadband programme.

“We can celebrate our success so far, but this additional investment reflects the authority’s determination to ensure that all of our taxpayers - communities and businesses – benefit from high-speed connectivity. We want North Yorkshire to be the premier place for people to live and to do business and we recognize that access to high speed broadband is vitally important to the economic prosperity of the county.

“WIth this extra funding, we will be able to penetrate to the more remote parts of our very rural county, to communities and businesses which hitherto had little hope of reaping the advantages and rewards of high speed internet access.”

The scheme, which is funded by the Government’s BDUK programme, the European Regional Development Fund, the County Council, and BT, has switched on almost 740 fibre-broadband cabinets across the county since its launch.

North Yorkshire County Council plan to follow up this latest funding package with further discussions with BT and partners to draw up contracts for the start of phase three.

Of the remaining 5% of premises that will not get superfast broadband during this next phase, the authority is confident that up to 3% will still benefit from fibre broadband at high speeds and is determined that all of North Yorkshire will have access to a good level of broadband quality and speed.