Last week I had a meeting with the Director of Openreach operations for the North East, and the Head of ICT on Durham County Council to try and sort out the continuing problems at these two sites.I have been working regularly on these for a ling time now and it has been a really hard slog. Across the Country thousands of communities are still missing out. Thankfully an end is in sight at least in our patch after all this chasing and pressure.

ROSEMOUNT

Early last year BT promised a new broadband box would be put in and be active for the summer. It didn’t happen. BT have apologised to me and said this promise should never had been made.

Issues of land access have now been sorted out. Issues of cost to provide electricity have been sorted out. Although BT confirmed that the Council’s contract is one of the reasons for the delay – i.e. they have put all resources into the Digital Durham contract which is separate to the Rosemount work, I have now been promised that this will not hold up the work. Our pressure in really pushing this has taken it up the agenda.

BT have confirmed that the final work required is now guaranteed to be funded in the coming financial year (April), and that their aim is to get this work done as a matter of urgency. I will be updating residents in the coming months on timescales when BT let me know but they are fully aware now that this is a PR problem for them and I am certain they will work hard to get a quick result. Certain because we will be chasing them if it doesn’t happen!

Clearly our public and private pressure has finally paid off.

FINCHALE ABBEY VILLAGE

This is part of the Digital Durham contract, but is not an easy one to fix. The location means that getting access is more difficult as potentially BT will need to provide a cross-river supply. However, I have been given a guarantee that this will be part of this year’s work program which is due to commence in June/July and run for unto 18 months. The Council, with BT will be working hard to get the program up and running and are aware of the importance that is placed on action by Finchale Abbey residents and us as local Lib Dem councillors. I have been given assurances that updates will be passed to me in the coming months so that residents can get a better indication of timescales. In the meantime we are checking to see if anything can done to improve speeds in the meantime. What is guaranteed is that at every opportunity we will be chasing this one as much as Rosemount!