I have been working closely with ministerial colleagues, local councils and broadband providers across our constituency to support the rollout of a decent broadband service for all residents.
A lot of progress has been made over the last four years. Thanks to continued Government funding and the work of the Superfast Essex team at Essex County Council over 43,940 premises (89 percent of the constituency) now have access to Superfast Broadband, up from 39,400 (83 percent) in 2019.
Considering the size of the constituency and the difficulties we have due to the distance between towns and villages, this is a sizeable improvement to provision.
However, I know some residents feel frustrated and disappointed as a result of delays to various cabinet rollouts in their community and lack of communication from providers completing the work – which are concerns I continue to raise with ministerial colleagues and during my regular meetings with the council.
The Government is committed to ensuring residents have access to reliable, fast broadband.
As part of the £5 billion project Gigabit plan, I am pleased that residents across the constituency will be set to benefit from Cambridgeshire and Essex’s recent funding allocation.
This is anticipated to include premises around Arkesden who unfortunately were removed from Gigaclear's proposed cabinet rollout earlier this year.
Since then I have continued to make representations to ensure these areas formed part of the latest central government funded Gigabit rollout plan. Once I have the final details, I will share this with residents.
There are also still a number of premises in the pipeline set to benefit from superfast broadband via Essex County Council’s phased rollout as well as commercial rollouts from Openreach and Gigaclear – I will be keeping a close eye on their progress.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding broadband rollout to your area, please contact me directly at kemi.badenoch.mp@parliament.uk.
You can also visit Essex County Council’s dedicated site for their programme roll out which will have the most up to date information for your area at www.superfastessex.org
Street surgeries
I have been holding street surgeries and have met a range of people.
To hear more about my work across our constituency and in Parliament, please sign up to my monthly e-newsletter at www.kemibadenoch.org.uk
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