Upper Teesdale will be last to get fast internet speeds, it is claimed

FOREST-in-Teesdale will be the only place in County Durham without a fibre broadband exchange by the end of 2018, it has been claimed.
Now farming charity Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services (Utass) is looking at other ways of improving broadband speed in the area.
Broadband connections are important for farmers in the upper dale because Defra insists that basic payment scheme applications are made over the internet. These  subsidies help keep hard-pressed hill farmers afloat.
Speaking during the charity’s annual meeting this month, chairman Dr onathan Nainby-Luxmoore said discussions were being held with Digital Durham and BT about the issue.
He said: “Last year we were complaining about the dire speeds and they are not wildly better. The phase two roll out of the Digital Durham scheme comes to an end in December 2018. By that stage they will have got all the exchanges with a fibre cabinet in all of County Durham, except of course Forest-in-Teesdale.”
He added that about 75 per cent of the cost to upgrade the exchange was burying the fibre cables underground. He suggested farmers could get involved by helping to dig ditches.
Dr Nainby-Luxmoore said: “There is no doubt it is expensive to provide but we hope that in the next 18 months we will be able to come back to you with some more information. To this end there is going to be a public meeting on the June 6 when we hope to get a number of these people here to see what we can do to get it to work.
“This is the first public meeting we are proposing to have to try to see how much interest there is in getting high speed internet up the dale.”
Durham County Council says it too is looking at ways of improving broadband in the area.
Phil Jackman, head of ICT for the council, said: “We are committed to improving broadband speeds for residents and businesses across County Durham. We recently met representatives of Utass and partners to explore how this can potentially be achieved in Forest-in-Teesdale and surrounding area, and will be continuing these discussions.”