Call for all areas of Shropshire to get same broadband speed
A petition to ensure all parts of Shropshire are treated equally when superfast broadband is rolled out has been launched in two villages near Oswestry.
Residents of St Martins and Weston Rhyn near Oswestry, say it is unfair that some areas will get speeds of between 30 and 80 megabytes while others will get only two. And they say priority should be given to those areas with no broadband provision or very poor broadband speeds.
At a meeting last night of the local joint committee for the area, Mrs Sue Schofield announced that the petition was available to sign at the St Martins Centre.
She questioned Mr Chris Taylor, broadband manager for Shropshire Council, who revealed that the the areas to benefit first from the roll out of the county's broadband programme would be announced this week.
"It will dispel the worries that the rural areas will be the last to benefit," he said.
"There are nine phases and of course some areas will be in the first few phases and some the last so there will be people that are disappointed."
Mrs Schofield said St Martins and Weston Rhyn had extremely poor broadband. "We are lucky if we get one megabyte, if was just half today," she said.
"The St Martins and Weston Rhyn campaign for better broadband believes that the emphasis on Superfast broadband speeds for a large majority who are already on higher internet speeds will leave the very rural parts of the county with no or minimal internet service for the foreseeable future.
"In rolling out faster broadband across Shropshire we ask that priority should be afforded to those areas without or with very poor broadband speeds.
"They should work from the rural parts to the county inwards rather than carrying out the easier upgrades first."
