On Friday 14 July Graham Stuart MP will meet Newbald Parish Council and residents to discuss what he calls the “critical” situation with broadband in the village.
Some of North Newbald already has ultrafast and superfast broadband but there are many residents who are missing out. Many homes have old BT broadband and are waiting for BT to upgrade them, which BT has no plan to do at present. Four or five roads have been allocated for potential commercial upgrade by Kcom, but the company say they will only consider putting in fibre to these homes if enough interest is shown. In other parts of the village, Kcom has said that it will offer superfast broadband by 2020 but residents feel they should not have to wait so long, especially as Kcom infrastructure already serves their houses.
The Parish Council, with Graham’s assistance, is doing everything it can to persuade Kcom to supply broadband fibre to each house on the roads in question. Graham has written personally to everyone on the affected roads asking them to fill in the Parish Council's broadband survey, with the aim of encouraging the company to proceed.
Speaking ahead of Friday’s meeting, Graham said,
“86% of properties in Beverley and Holderness are currently supposed to have very fast broadband but all partners including suppliers, the local authority and the Government need to pull their weight to reach the remaining rural areas, where the situation is often critical. That’s why I am urging Kcom to follow up on the fantastic roll-out of its Lightstream service in Beverley by doing all it can to help people and businesses in North Newbald.
“People in North Newbald have their own important role to play and I am asking them to fill in the Parish Council's broadband survey. The link to the survey is on the Parish Council's excellent website, or you could go straight to it here: www.newbald.com/newbald-parish-broadband-survey/. If we fail to show demand now, it could be a long time before another supplier delivers the infrastructure.”
