Fight to win faster broadband in Ironbridge

Although Ironbridge is right next to Woodside, which recent study's have shown has the fastest broadband speeds in the country, the gorge itself is lagging behind.

Samuel Joyce, a 22-year-old Ironbridge student, who is leading the petition, said there seemed to be no plan to upgrade the area's exchange as yet, so Ironbridge probably would not get fast broadband for a few years.

"I want to change this and convince BT to start the revamp sooner," he added. "I want to show that if they install it, people will use it. By registering their interest, it may speed up the whole process."

Councillor Keith Osmund-Smith, from The Gorge Parish Council, said: "This definitely is something we want to support. The area all around Ironbridge, including Madeley and Woodside, all have fibre optic broadband but Ironbridge has been told it has to wait at least two years. There is a lot of commerce and industry there which would benefit from high-speed broadband."

He said the estimated cost of installing the broadband in the area is about £33-£38,000, but if divided between the 1,399 registered broadband users it would only be about £30 to £35.

He added Lightmoor residents had worked together to pay for high-speed broadband.

Emma Tennent, a spokeswoman for BT, said BT had committed £2.5 billion to bring faster fibre broadband to two-thirds of UK's homes and businesses by the end of spring 2014, but could not say whether this included the Ironbridge area. If Ironbridge fell outside the scheme it would be down to the Broadband Delivery UK programme to tackle.

However, Telford & Wrekin Council is not currently involved with the scheme as a spokesman said the majority of areas in the borough already received high broadband speeds.