Last updated at 14:11, Thursday, 24 May 2012

Cumbrian MP Rory Stewart has stepped into the row over the withdrawal broadband provision for two rural communities.

Cable & Wireless Worldwide says it will axe the 'uneconomical' broadband connection in Duddon Valley because public subsidy has ended.

Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart described the situation as "shocking", but added that he thought the subsidy spent on the connection had been "a complete waste of money."

Speaking on Radio 4's World at One he said: "We are talking about £500,000 spent on providing broadband for about 50 houses and all this money was spent on something that turns out to be completely unviable and cannot be sustained.

"It shows how far we have come in five years. This was a complete waste of money with the company not being flexible, the Government not being imaginative and the community not being involved."

Mr Stewart said the short term solution would be to use satellite at a cost of £25 a month, but the Duddon Vallery would be able to get speeds of 30 to 40 times faster if the community linked up with a supplier under the Connecting Cumbria project.

"The council will be announcing the successful bidder next month and we hope to start work in the Autumn," he said.

News of Duddon Vallery losing its broadband has attracted national interest today with the Guardian reporting that "the race to connect every British home to the internet has gone into reverse in Cumbria, where two communities will lose their broadband connection at the end of June.

The Duddon Valley, a beauty spot so admired by Wordsworth he dedicated 34 sonnets to its streams and flowers, and Branthwaite on the western edge of the Lake District, are to have the plug pulled on their broadband by the telecoms group that supplies it."

Cable & Wireless Worldwide has written to residents to say the public funds raised to pay for the service have expired, and because the connection is "uneconomical", it is to be withdrawn.

Read more at the Guardian online

First published at 07:35, Thursday, 24 May 2012
Published by http://www.in-cumbria.com