Newcastle and Liverpool Tipped Off With Regard to Fibre

The government has stated that there are three regions in England that may not have the chance to avail of the public grants for high speed broadband.

The Department for culture Media and sport (DCMS) had said in a statement that it did not have faith that the three sets of local councils could meet the deadline which was slated for February end, to present their sketch of their local plans for broadband. The Secretary for Culture, Mr. Jeremy Hunt had stated last December that the authorities who do not give in their plans by the deadline would not be able to avail of the promised finances for fibre. The three local groups were Liverpool, Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral; North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland and Bath and North East Somerset.

Presently there is 730 million pounds of grants that can be availed of for local broadband ventures. Of this, 530 million pounds is from funds of the Broadband delivery UK, that is largely intended for non-metropolitan regions where the Internet Service providers would not have any investments. 100 million pounds is from the ‘super-connected cities’ venture that was launched by the government the previous year, whereas another 100 million pounds was declared on Thursday by the ‘potential European Grants’.

Minister for Communications, Mr. Ed Vaizey had noted that there were four additional regions that had been given approval from the government for their rough plans. These regions were Kent and Medway Councils; Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin; Lincolnshire; and Hampshire, City of Portsmouth and City of Southampton.

He said that he was overwhelmed by the eagerness that was displayed by most of the councils to avail of the chance to provide high speed broadband.

Approximately one third of the 47 schemes were presently ready to move into the delivery stage. Of the 32 balance projects, the DCMS stated that it had faith that 16 0f them would meet the specified date, and was only half sure that the remaining 13 could do it.

That Mr. Vaizey would be meeting up with the three local group to authorities that did make requisite progress, to solve problems was informed by DCMS

A Google Map had been created by the department so that the people could view a illustrated representation of the progress of the local broadband plans in that region.