“Poor Broadband Connection.
Carmarthen East/ Dinefwr has been ranked the 5th slowest area in the UK receiving superfast broadband connection.
Carmarthenshire County Councillors have received two separate presentations in the Chamber from officers of British Telecom during 2014 and 2016 promising improvement in the rate of our broadband connection within Carmarthenshire.
The latest report is that the best we can now expect is 2020!!!
The goalpost is constantly moving with little progress and empty promises.
How are people including Councillors expected to fulfil their duties and be efficient in the workplace when there is limited broadband in some areas of Carmarthenshire?
I kindly ask Carmarthenshire County Council to write to British Telecom and insist on a priority programme of work to rectify the major problem we have in Carmarthen East/Dinefwr”.
Minutes:
“Poor Broadband Connection.
Carmarthen East/ Dinefwr has been ranked the 5th slowest area in the UK receiving superfast broadband connection or rather, the lack of it.
Carmarthenshire County Councillors have received two separate presentations in the Chamber from officers of British Telecom during 2014 and 2016 promising improvement in the rate of our broadband connection within Carmarthenshire.
The latest report is that the best we can now expect is 2020!!!
The goalpost is constantly moving with little progress and full of empty promises.
How are people including Councillors expected to fulfil their duties and be efficient in the workplace when there is limited broadband in some areas of Carmarthenshire?. Whilst I make this request as far as Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, I would like to highlight that several other councillors within the Authority have supported me in this and said that they too, in particular Trelech and other rural areas. I therefore say so on behalf of the whole authority.
I kindly ask Carmarthenshire County Council to write to British Telecom and insist on a priority programme of work to rectify the major problem we have in Carmarthen East/Dinefwr”.
I would also like to make an amendment to the above and ask Councillor Mair Stephens if she’d be willing to do, and obviously the whole chamber. Of late we’ve established a Rural Forum in Carmarthenshire, and one of the issues they said they would do is to have the speaker visit the rural forum where there’d be nine members cross party at the meeting. Therefore, if that could be a consideration and the response from British Telecom be reported back to the full council. I think that would be good governance. Therefore, if Councillor Mair Stephens would be mindful to bear that in mind, I’d be so grateful.
Response by Councillor Mair Stephens, Deputy Leader of the Council:-
Thank you Councillor James for raising this matter. And, of course, it is a very important subject for everyone in Carmarthenshire.
As you correctly state, in the article published in August 2017 by Wales Online it revealed that Carmarthen East and Dinefwr was the 5th worst parliamentary constituency for broadband speed and, I hate to say it, the worst in Wales. The article was linked to a report published by the British Infrastructure Group and based on Consumer tested broadband speeds by the Magazine ‘Which’.
In total, some 14,000 properties in the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr area have inadequate broadband speeds which is totally unacceptable. It places our rural communities at a significant disadvantage and hinders the ability of rural businesses to compete in a global economy, it does not help our residents to access essential services online and, of course, more closer to home, it has an effect on our work too.
Based on the latest data obtained from British Telecom, which is provided only on a Local Authority Level, we know that 81% of properties have access to Superfast Broadband, which equates to 54,000 households. This compares to 21% in 2014 so, there has been a little bit of an improvement. Welsh Government has set British Telecom a target of 96% of properties in 2020.
It does concern me, however, that of those 81% of Carmarthenshire properties who have access to superfast broadband, of those, only 34.4% actually use the service and I have spoken to our colleagues in our Media and Marketing team to see if we can raise greater awareness of the availability of superfast broadband.
I will, of course, write to Edward Hunt who is the Next Generation Access Director of Wales and has responsibility for the roll-out of superfast broadband in Wales, to insist on a priority programme of work to address the connectivity issues that we have in Carmarthenshire and especially in Carmarthen East/ Dinefwr.
I am sure that the Rural Affairs Task Group will be taking this forward and, I’m happy to work in conjunction with them to help to put this programme in place as soon as possible. I’m sure that when that group has met, if there is a need then we will still have them to answer to this chamber and to ensure that we all have our say. But, In the meantime, I’m sure we’ll all have our input into the Rural Affairs Group.