Residents of Brent Knoll and East Brent are celebrating victory in their campaign to bring ultrafast broadband to their villages.
Slow Internet connection speeds have adversely affected many residents in the villages, so a campaign was started earlier this year to push for Ultrafast Broadband to be rolled out.
Steve Baggs, who ran the local campaign, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “Residents of Brent Knoll and East Brent will soon have access to Ultrafast Fibre Broadband, thanks to our successful three-month campaign to attract funding through the Gigabit Voucher Scheme.”
“The project attracted a lot of interest from day one. People registered with Openreach and committed to take a full fibre connection, and then confirmed their commitment by responding to an email from the government.”
“Each validated application attracts government money to help pay for the new network.”
“By the end of September we had enough validated applications, and not long afterwards I was notified that the project will go ahead in the current financial year.”
Openreach surveyors have already been visiting some registered properties to plan the new network.
Steve adds: “We don’t have an official target date, but there are time limits on government-funded networks like this.”
“I am confident we will be up and running during 2024, and I am hoping it will be before next summer.”
The Gigabit scheme supports the installation of full-fibre broadband in rural areas where it would not otherwise be commercially viable.
