Colton Superfast Broadband Why it's important and how we can get it......Mike Postle (mike@mpo1.uk)

 

 

We now have fascinating – but not necessarily illuminating – documents relating the ongoing saga of the forbidden information. Those of you who followed the links to the Public Accounts Committee hearing from my earlier posting will know that BT’s Director of Strategy gave evidence that BT did not object to local authorities publishing information on roll out plans for superfast broadband (SFBB).

 

Well the reality on the ground has proved otherwise with the SFBB roll-out information being as elusive as ever. That’s not to say that there has been any shortage of activity - with letters flying to and fro.  (If you are in a hurry, skip the detail and go to the final paragraph!)

 

We have:

·         Tim Farron putting these concerns in a letter to BT’s then Chief Executive  – Ian Livingston.

·         BT’s Director of Public Affairs replying saying that they were surprised at the suggestion that that they are preventing Cumbria from publishing mapping information and offering to talk to Cumbria.

·         The Chair of the Public Accounts Committee – Margaret Hodge – replying to the Chair of the Cumbria Hub Coordinators’ Group – sharing her frustration at the lack of transparency and signalling that her committee’s forthcoming report will make this issue a central theme.

·         Cumbria CC’s cabinet member for economic development, David Southward, writing to Margaret Hodge expressing his frustration that although they have access to detailed information, they are being prevented from making this public. He makes, in my view, the very valid point that it is difficult to understand how the information is commercially sensitive when we are having to use public money precisely because there is no commercial market for SFBB in rural areas.

 

To add to the paper trail, we have

·         A report in Computer Weekly that the County Council has said that both BT and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport  have ordered it not to publish detailed information on the roll out plans.  Read it at: www.computerweekly.com/news/2240207856/BT-and-Whitehall-tell-council-to-keep-BDUK-postcodes-quiet?utm_content=buffere8eaa&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

·         The publication of the contract between BT and Cumbria County Council but don’t get too excited: with the number of redacted paragraphs making it impossible to get any really useful information from it. (The spooks at MI5 couldn’t have done a better job). (Follow the last link on  www.connectingcumbria.org.uk/questions-and-answers)

 

So why, apart from debates about the use of (our) public money and accountability, does all this matter?

 

It matters because at a community level we are unable to get the information required to determine what action (if any) we need to take to bring the best Broadband connectivity to our homes and businesses.

Time, I think, for us collectively and individually to make our views known and break through this rather opaque tangled web…..