Faster and more reliable broadband is one of my top priorities. Last week, I held a top level summit with Openreach CEO, Clive Selley, to observe first-hand the rollout of ultrafast broadband in Amberley. These upgrades, achieving up to 1,000 mbp/s download speeds, were made all the more impressive when compared to the historic analogue phone exchanges just next door at Amberley Museum.
This Government is investing £5 billion to make sure that rural residents across the UK have access to lightning-fast broadband. Indeed, West Sussex will receive up to £112 million of investment to upgrade 68,000 of the ‘hardest-to-reach’ areas. Residents in rural areas are also able to come together with their neighbours to form a Fibre Community Partnership and I have supported a number of these worthwhile schemes locally. Together, Partnerships can apply for access to Rural Gigabit Broadband Vouchers worth up to £1,500 for homes and £3,500 for businesses help to cover the costs of installing gigabit broadband.
On another issue, I know that our rural roads can often become exceptionally dangerous for residents. This is something I met with locals and representatives from Coldwaltham and Pulborough Parish Councils to observe last week, and to discuss what can be done to tackle this problem. With the increase in size and frequency of HGVs, many residents along the A29 are rightly concerned about road safety and the impact of this vehicles. Too often, these vehicles fail to observe speed limits in our villages and hamlets, posing a serious risk to pedestrians. I look forward to supporting the local community in every way I can to secure appropriate and practical measures to reduce the impact of antisocial road users.
Unfortunately, our trains are still not back on track – quite literally – causing a real headache for many. On Friday I spoke to Govia Rail Exec, Angie Doll, about the current reduced rail service which is impacting residents. Season-ticket holders in particular have been treated unfairly, paying for a service which is running way below normal and unable to get even a partial refund.
