Shropshire villages given internet boost

The cash, secured by Connecting Shropshire, aims to connect more than 63,000 homes and businesses to faster fibre broadband by the end of 2016.

Chris Taylor, programme manager of Connecting Shropshire, said today that the investment would see homes on the Shropshire border such as Romsley, Arley, Six Ashes and Tuck Hill also get faster internet speeds.

About 31,500 homes and businesses will be the latest to get faster internet across the county as the scheme reaches the half-way point in the roll-out by Connecting Shropshire, a partnership between Shropshire Council, BT and the Government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme.

Mr Taylor said: "Premises in the Romsley, Arley, Six Ashes and Tuck Hill that are in the Shropshire Council area are included in the Connecting Shropshire programme irrespective of the location of their broadband and telephone service infrastructure.

"Connecting Shropshire has a commitment to provide all premises in our programme area with access to at least 2mbps by the end of 2016, where current connection speeds are less than 2mbps."

Graham Hurry, clerk of Alveley Parish Council, said the village, which sits eight miles from Bridgnorth, was already benefiting from a further roll out of the scheme.

But he said smaller outlying places like Arley, Six Ashes, Tuck Hill and Romsley, on the Shropshire and Worcestershire border, were struggling with internet speeds.

Mr Hurry said: "

Our concern is those areas already had a better service before these latest upgrades were introduced."

Maple Crescent in Alveley was named Britain's fifth worst street for slow broadband and the slowest in the West Midlands last year, with an average download speed of 0.91 megabits per second.