Diseworth residents and businesses celebrate becoming ‘Disewired’
Diseworth residents and businesses have welcomed the news that they will be included in plans to extend superfast fibre broadband to rural areas.
Leicestershire County Council and BT announced today, that with the help of local community group Disewired, additional funding has been secured to include the community in the Superfast Leicestershire project.
Thanks to an extra £119,000 secured by Disewired from Department for Culture, Media and Sport and BT high speed fibre broadband will be rolled out to residents and businesses in the village by the end of 2015.
Nick Rushton, leader of the county council who represents the village, said: “I am proud to announce that Diseworth will be part of the Superfast Leicestershire high-speed fibre rollout. This is another positive step towards realising our vision of bringing high speed fibre broadband to all of our county’s homes and businesses.
“I’d like to commend the dedication shown by the residents of Diseworth. It is in no small part down to their continued efforts that we now have access to this funding.”
Mike Doyle, chairman of Disewired, said: “This is the culmination of a long campaign to bring decent broadband into our village.
“The ‘Broadband Divide’, where urban areas see increasing broadband speeds whilst rural areas are left languishing with a poor service, is a very real issue. Our partnership with Leicestershire County Council and BT has been a fine example of how a community can pull together with local government and national industry to improve life for local residents.
”We look forward to Diseworth’s residents, homeworkers and business owners being able to enjoy the benefits of a decent broadband connection during 2015, and we thank all everyone who has supported and encouraged us on this journey.”
Councillor Tony Gillard, portfolio holder for business at North West Leicestershire District Council, said: “I would like to pass on my congratulations to the team Diseworth residents behind Disewired, whose hard work and commitment has secured this funding.
“The success of the Disewired project will be of great benefit to the number of local residents who work from home, entrepreneurs and small businesses who are suffering with a slow broadband speed. Slow speeds are a real barrier to e-commerce opportunities, innovation and sustainable business growth.
“As well as our business community, residents and community groups in Diseworth would benefit greatly from the deployment of improved broadband connectivity.”
Kasam Hussain, BT’s project manager for Superfast Leicestershire said: “Disewired is a very proactive community group that understands the plethora of benefits fast, fibre broadband will bring to their village. BT is delighted that, by working together, we’ve been able to bring them a step closer to the superfast broadband highway.”
Communications Minister Ed Vaizey said: “This additional funding is excellent news for Diseworth, and the extra £119,000 will bring superfast broadband to more than 250 premises that would otherwise have had to wait. The UK already does more business online than any other European country and widespread access to superfast speeds will provide a welcome boost to Leicestershire’s economy.”
Rural Affairs Minister Dan Rogerson said: “Fast and reliable broadband coverage is crucial to building stronger rural economies and enabling farmers and all rural businesses to grow and thrive. This extra funding will allow rural businesses to benefit and will help close the rural and urban divide in broadband coverage.”
For more information about the Superfast Leicestershire project visit www.superfastleicestershire.org.uk
ENDS
Notes for Editors
Funding: £119,000 to deliver fibre broadband in Diseworth
• £79,000 from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
• £40,000 from BT
Superfast Leicestershire is a project that seeks to extend high-speed fibre broadband coverage beyond the existing commercial fibre broadband rollout of companies such as Openreach (a BT Group company) and Virgin Media to 96% of premises. We anticipate that 62,000 premises will be able to access fibre broadband.
The county council is investing £4.0m in this project. £1.1m has been allocated by the district and borough councils, with an additional £3.4m coming from the Government and £1.2m from the European Union. BT is also contributing £9.1m towards the overall cost of the Superfast Leicestershire project.
Many homes and businesses in the county may already have access to broadband. Superfast Leicestershire concentrates on the areas the commercial rollout is not able to reach. In addition to the commitment to extend superfast broadband coverage, Superfast Leicestershire aims to ensure all premises have access to at least 2Mbps.
The county council is keen to ensure that everyone within Leicestershire can benefit from this project as it helps to grow the economy over the coming years. The county council anticipates that this investment in superfast broadband could generate £92m of economic growth by 2021, and will work with local communities as well as help small businesses to adopt technologies and grow.
Superfast Britain
Superfast Britain is a Government programme of investment in broadband and communication infrastructure across the UK. Run by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, this investment helps businesses to grow, creates jobs and will make Britain more competitive in the global race. The portfolio is comprised of three elements:
• £780m to extend superfast broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017
• £150m to provide high speed broadband to businesses in 22 cities
• £150m to improve quality and coverage of mobile phone and basic data network services
Administered on behalf of Government by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), Superfast Britain is transforming Britain by promoting growth, enabling skills and learning, and improving quality of life.
For more information: https://www.gov.uk/broadband-delivery-uk
ERDF
The Superfast Leicestershire project is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the managing authority for the European Regional Development Fund Programme, which is one of the funds established by the European Commission to help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support local businesses and create jobs. For more information visit
www.gov.uk/browse/business/funding-debt/european-regional-development-funding
Media contact – Leicestershire County Council:
Dan Cooper, Media Officer, Leicestershire County Council, 0116 305 5712, dan.cooper@leics.gov.uk
Out of hours duty press officer on 07887 634474 (for urgent or emergency work only)
Media contact – BT:
Paul Hayward, Media Relations Manager, East of England, 01206 820787, 07801 759627, paul.hayward@bt.com
