Broadband Services (Dodworth, South Yorkshire)
The Petition of residents of Dodworth,
Declares that the Petitioners believe that broadband provision in the Dodworth Water Royd and Rose Hill estates is inadequate and is among the slowest service in the UK; further declares that the Petitioners believe that as time goes on the area will lag further behind in broadband speed, still struggling with a connection measured in megabits per second while the rest of the country has access to speeds measured in gigabits per second; further declares that this disparity will have a negative impact on those living in the area who will be unable to access internet services in future, which will have knock-on effects on lifestyle, prosperity, and in all likelihood, property prices; further declares that the Petitioners believe that the problem in this area is that there is no access to a local fibre street cabinet, which means that connections are made through around 6.5km of copper wire, resulting in slower connection speeds; and declares that the Petitioners believe that such a cabinet could be installed without the need to dig up roads or pavements.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to take all possible steps to ensure that residents of the Dodworth Water Royd and Rose Hill estates in Dodworth are able to access broadband services that are of comparable speeds to those available elsewhere in the country.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Angela Smith, Official Report, 24 April 2012; Vol. 543, c. 922.]
[P001021]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport:
Government have allocated £530 million of funding to support broadband across the UK over the life of this Parliament. This funding will support roll-out of at least 90% coverage—for the country as a whole— of superfast broadband, the remainder meeting the universal standard of at least 2Mbps.
Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) has been tasked with implementing the Government’s objectives for broadband to all parts of the UK. The choice and method of delivery for broadband deployment is in the hands of local authorities. However, in the case of South Yorkshire, the Digital Region Ltd (DRL) project is operating independently of BDUK’s broadband strategy.
Currently DRL has implemented a superfast broadband network that reaches approximately 80% of premises in South Yorkshire. The Government are in discussion with the Digital Region project about an additional funding allocation to allow coverage to be extended to meet the Government targets.