Question from Councillor Grenville Chamberlain
There are many unused agricultural buildings which could be used for the development of rural businesses but without access to high speed broadband they will remain unused for the foreseeable future. Can the Leader explain what is being done to ensure the delivery of high speed broadband across South Cambridgeshire?
Minutes:
There are many unused agricultural buildings which could be used for the development of rural businesses but without access to high speed broadband they will remain unused for the foreseeable future. Can the Leader explain what is being done to ensure the delivery of high speed broadband across South Cambridgeshire?
Councillor Nick Wright, the Business and Customer Services Portfolio Holder, responded that the Council had supported the work of Connecting Cambridgeshire to improve broadband service across the District. As a result, 96.4% of South Cambs properties now had access to superfast broadband with speeds greater than 24Mb per second. This was better than the County average of 95.8%.
The recent Let's Talk consultation with South Cambs residents and the successful Member-led Task & Finish Group on supporting the development of rural small and medium-sized businesses had both highlighted that access to broadband remained a key issue for residents and businesses.
South Cambridgeshire District Council officers were now working with Connecting Cambridgeshire to bid for over £4 million of Rural Development Programme for England Growth Programme Rural Broadband Infrastructure funding to cover the harder to reach rural premises (especially businesses, including farms). This would, alongside a potential European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) application, form Phase 4 of the rollout. With South Cambridgeshire District Council officer input, Connecting Cambridgeshire was about to start procurement for this phase with work beginning around Autumn 2018.
Councillor Chamberlain noted that the lack of broadband was just one impediment to the use of agricultural buildings for business and commercial purposes, another was rural crime. As a supplementary question he asked what steps could be taken by the Council to encourage the Police to take a more active role in preventing rural crime.
In response, the Business and Customer Services Portfolio Holder reported on a meeting which had taken place between the Leader and the Police Superintendent responsible for the Rural Crime unit to discuss rural crime and when, amongst other issues, the opportunity had been taken to discuss the problems associated with illegal hare coursing.