Rural Communities in Scotland: Broadband Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Alister Jack
Main Page: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)Department Debates - View all Alister Jack's debates with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Rural Communities in Scotland: Broadband
Alister Jack Excerpts(6 years, 5 months ago)
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John Lamont
My hon. Friend makes an important point. I will come on to the alternatives and self-help options, which many communities have to consider because of the failures, particularly of Openreach, to deliver to some of the harder-to-reach communities.
Mr Alister Jack (Dumfries and Galloway) (Con)
Returning to a point my hon. Friend made a moment ago, my constituency of Dumfries and Galloway is in the bottom 30 of constituencies in the UK. We have done a broadband survey and had over 300 responses. When we speak to people directly, it is undoubtedly the case that they think the Scottish Government are focusing on the central belt, and they want the UK Government to put the money directly into Dumfries and Galloway, not to go through an organisation that is concentrating on population rather than square miles.
John Lamont
My hon. Friend makes an important point, which supports the point that I am making about the role local councils should have. Local councils, whether it is Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders or Aberdeenshire, have a much better understanding of how to deliver better superfast broadband to the communities they serve. I strongly believe that central Government, particularly the nationalist Government in Edinburgh, are so focused on other priorities and the central belt that they are failing rural Scotland and many of the constituencies that we represent.