Rural Teesdale residents unite to campaign for better internet

LOCAL knowledge could see two upper dale communities included in the next rollout of superfast broadband.
Holwick was unlikely to have been included in Digital Durham’s latest broadband improvements because of the high cost involved while another planned line would stop just yards short of Newbiggin, leaving it too without the service.
People in Holwick complain of internet speeds of about one megabit per second.
However, a public meeting at the Strathmore Arms in the village on Thursday, January 12, came up with some innovative solutions that BT engineers may now consider.
BT’s regional partnerships director, Simon Roberson, initially thought he was bringing bad news to the community, explaining that putting in lines and ducting to the nearest fibre point might be too expensive.
He said: “I will be quite honest with you, given the economics of five or six kilometres of unducted route to get to 20 or 30 odd houses, I would be surprised if you did come up in that next phase.”
Currently a maximum of about £1,700 can be spent per household to connect areas to broadband under the Digital Durham scheme.
News that a fibre line due to be installed on the other side of the River Tees would provide broadband up to West Brokers Gill Farm but stop short of going into nearby Newbiggin was met with disbelief. Martin Rogers, who lives near the village, said: “Why on earth? If you are going that far, why aren’t you going the extra couple of yards to Newbiggin? Your lot would be better informed if they actually went and looked at places.”
Alli Walker, of Digital Durham, explained that the current rollout plans were mapped out by a central team and these were being reviewed by local teams.
She said: “It is a sanity check really. Obviously from the council’s point of view we want value for money from this and we want to make sure it is as accurate as possible and we want to pick up as many properties as we potentially can.”
Mr Roberson added: “For the number of properties you would pick up in Newbiggin it would absolutely make common sense to extend it, but at the moment, as it currently stands in the plan, that’s where it is going.”
It was suggested that BT consider connecting Holwick to the Newbiggin line via farm tracks and a footbridge across the river. This would be much closer and cost less than the current proposal.
Mr Roberson said a possible solution would be for people in Holwick to form a “community fibre partnership” which could ask BT to look into the cost of making the connection. People would have to top up the cost of the connection if it exceeds the Digital Durham subsidy.
Mr Roberson said: “That is why it is valuable to come to talk to you guys. When our models do this, they will look at public roads and where our copper cables run. They are not set up to look at the shortest geographic route. If we go down this community fibre partnership route, then we can force the engineers to look at that.”
County councillor Richard Bell added: “If we have to do this community partnership thing to get the ball rolling, then that is what we will do and hopefully make some progress one way or the other.”
Holwick parish meeting chairman Jeff Crossley agreed to be the contact between Digital Durham and the community partnership.