Arundel and South Downs MP, Andrew Griffith, has criticised the announcement from the Government that CityFibre will be significantly scaling back their planned full fibre infrastructure builds in hard-to-reach areas, snatching away hope of faster connectivity for thousands of West Sussex residents.
Last week, Government Ministers and CityFibre confirmed that plans to deliver full fibre to 52,000 hard to reach premises has now been scaled back to just 13,000 across East and West Sussex. This, Andrew Griffith warns, is a devastating blow to rural communities and will consign businesses and homes to the digital slow lane indefinitely.
While it is understood that some projects are proceeding, it will be properties that were included in the later stage of the project that are most likely to be removed altogether from the programme. Many residents who applied for the Project Gigabit vouchers scheme must now wait to see if they are still going to get their local build.
Andrew Griffith has written to Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to seek urgent clarification of which projects are now out of scope and asking what the Government’s plans are to to fill the gap.
The MP points out that reliable broadband is no longer a luxury but an essential utility for education, work, access to public services as well as the many leisure uses.
Andrew Griffith said:
“Two and a half years ago, I welcomed the news from the previous Conservative Government that they had awarded a £100 million contract to CityFibre to deliver fast broadband to thousands of harder-to-reach properties in West Sussex that were not being reached by commercial rollouts. Now I am told that the government has pulled the rug on the plans and my constituents are the ones left behind.
“This is and simply unacceptable and I am calling for the scheme to be reinstated in full or urgent alternatives to be funded. Commercial operators are simply not coming forward in some rural parts of the South Downs so there must be a programme and timeline for this and I want the Minister to set these out urgently.”
