Mendip District Council pledges £400,000 to south-west fibre broadband

The Connecting Devon and Somerset fibre broadband rollout programme is to receive £400,000 from Mendip District Council to help it to deliver the superfast service to homes and businesses throughout the two counties.

Rural communities will be the first to benefit from the funding, which is in addition to £22.75 million that the government has recently made available for the same cause.

Portfolio Holder for Business Development and Growth and Deputy Leader of the local council Tom Killen commented: "Access to superfast broadband is an essential requirement for businesses that want to develop and thrive."

It is thought the cash will help 4,000 more domestic properties and commercial buildings to connect to fibre broadband by the end of 2017, but the exact figure will not be known until the completion of an official procurement process.

This is in addition to the thousands of premises that have already gained access to the high-speed technology under the Connecting Devon and Somerset rollout initiative. 

Mr Killen added he was looking forward to the programme reaching Mendip "and transforming the area's broadband speeds".