Pledge of Support for Rural Broadband
by Tim Barnes-Clay, LincsMag Writer.
Date: 14 July 2011
A rural watchdog has pledged its full support to the Rural Broadband Partnership (RPB), a national mechanism set up to identify and address the real broadband needs of rural areas.
In its own long running broadband campaign, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has championed the needs of rural businesses for access to affordable and effective broadband.
However, the CLA has had difficulty in trying to collate the level of demand for broadband in rural areas, which is essential information for those making investment decisions.
Tool That Can Help
The CLA’s head of rural business development, Dr Charles Trotman, said: “We have looked at many different models to plot the broadband need and deliver community-based broadband systems. Some have been useful while others have not added to the national broadband debate.
“Having assessed the viability of the RBP over a considerable period, we now believe there is finally a tool that can help communities in rural areas and those in the final third of the country who do not have access to effective broadband, to find out what is happening in each part of the UK.”
Matt Craven, owner of The Grange Spa, at Pointon, near Sleaford in Lincolnshire, commented: “The Rural Broadband Partnership is crucial in helping those who may be unaware of what is available in our area, as well as providing information about the importance of broadband to our rural economy. It endorses Government principles of localism which allows businesses, like mine, and communities to be in control and ‘help ourselves’ to broadband.”
Mr Craven added: “Obviously businesses must have a web presence to survive in today’s economy. Rural enterprises like The Grange Spa have no shop front and the web is an opening to gain a profile both on a local and national market place. This presence can be further boosted by a social media profile such as Facebook or Twitter.”
Social Media Surgery
To further highlight the importance of broadband in the countryside, the CLA launched a ‘Social Media Surgery’ at the recent Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate. It provided practical advice to farmers and other rural residents and businesses to help them navigate the world of social networking.
CLA President and Yorkshire landowner William Worsley said: “The CLA has long recognised the growing importance of communicating digitally and aims to help rural areas get up to speed with their urban counterparts. However, the lack of a suitable broadband connection makes it nearly impossible for rural businesses and communities to communicate.
“Ofcom’s first interactive broadband map, published in early July, shows that more than 16 percent of homes in Yorkshire are unable to receive the Government’s benchmark of two Megabits per second (Mb/ps). Residents and businesses here, along with many other rural communities across the UK, are constrained in the use of social media.”
Mr Worsley said Ofcom’s map vindicated what the CLA had said for years - there is a clear rural-urban digital divide that appears to be growing, to the detriment of sustainable rural businesses and communities.
He added: “If rural areas cannot connect because there is no broadband, they are unable to benefit from new technologies such as Twitter and Facebook. The divide will widen, leading to uncompetitive rural businesses and socially excluded rural communities. The countryside sees the enormous advantages of social media but is frustrated that it cannot play a part.”
