East Devon decided to pull out of CDS and go it alone with its own broadband deal, thereby missing out on this extra funding and meaning thousands of pounds in the pockets of “consultants” who will be employed by EDDC to duplicate the work of CDC.
“The broadband scheme for Devon and Somerset has received an £8 million windfall in last week’s budget.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne awarded Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS), which is rolling out broadband in rural areas, an extra £4m in funding for so-called ultra-fast connections.
The remaining £4m is expected to come from match funding by the private sector.
This additional funding, which comes on top of a £10m pot announced in the Autumn Statement for the whole South West, is intended to deliver broadband speeds of a minimum of 100Mbps to at least 4,000 premises in phase two of the CDS programme, which will eventually see broadband rolled out across the final 10% of the two counties so far uncovered.”
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Osborne-hands-Devon-Somerset-8m-ultra-fast/story-28964282-detail/story.html
East Devon Watch 