Derrick Murphy, 2nd left, leader of the Norfolk County Council, and Peter Waters, 2nd right, editor of the EDP, with MP George Freeman, and Caroline Williams, , chief executive of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, by the marble county map showing the businesses who have backed the Broadband bid. Picture: Denise Bradley

Almost 200 businesses back Norfolk broadband bid

PETER WALSH Tuesday, April 19, 2011
2:06 PM

Almost 200 Norfolk businesses have backed the multi-million-pound bid for faster broadband in the space of just two weeks, it emerged.

The impressive scale of support for the bid that has been to the government was revealed at County Hall.

The marble map of Norfolk was decorated with some 200 flags, representing those businesses that had backed the bid by responding to say they needed better broadband access.

Derrick Murphy, leader of Norfolk County Council, was joined by Peter Waters, editor of the EDP, and business leaders at the event, which signalled the culmination of the Back the Bid campaign.

The campaign has been run by the EDP and the county council, which is bidding against 24 other local authorities across the UK for a share of a £530m Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funding pot to invest in making superfast broadband available in areas with no or poor access.

Large parts of Norfolk have been identified as broadband “not-spots”, where households and businesses either have no broadband coverage at all or cannot receive a standard level of service (2Mb).

The deadline for bids to be submitted was 5pm on Monday, and the council is likely to find out whether it has been successful by the end of May.

If the bid does succeed, it is reckoned that improvements will:

Boost the local economy by an extra £401m over the next decade.

Create 1,337 jobs.

Provide faster broadband access for 93,000 properties.

Mr Murphy said the success of the bid was one of the single most important decisions for Norfolk for some considerable time; it was absolutely vital in terms of securing inward investment.

He added: “Without doubt, Norfolk currently suffers disproportionately from poor broadband access. Improving our broadband network in Norfolk is one of the best investments we could make in value for money terms to ensure the future success of the county.”

Mr Waters said he was thrilled that the EDP could help champion Norfolk with campaigns like this in which the entire community came together to strive for the same goal.

He added: ”We have the creativity, the energy, the entrepreneurs and the ideas. What we lack is investment in infrastructure. If we can create jobs and wealth, it will not only benefit us: it will also benefit the treasury. It is win-win – simple as that. We’ve just got to get that message through to the government and their agencies, and I hope that begins with this bid.”

At the end of last month the council and EDP launched an appeal for businesses and organisations in Norfolk to back the bid by demonstrating the impact better broadband access could have on their success and profitability. The scores of businesses and organisations that responded filled in testimonial forms and signed their names on letters of support; this evidence has been used to strengthen the bid.

Caroline Williams, chief executive of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, said: “Communication is key to business success and for the ability to be able to create jobs and move Norfolk’s economy forward, so this bid, and its outcome, could have a significant impact on businesses being able to move forward.”

peter.walsh@archant.co.uk

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8 comments

It should be BT's money from the monopoly on phone lines and calls to pay for it, and if they can't, strip them of their phone lines, which are pathetic, then give it to someone with enough money who can take us forward with technology we need, all BT are doing is holding us all up the Backward Twerps, I can't stand them, had it too easy for too long and in the process have wasted all our money they should of spent on fibre optics for every single home, decades ago. I don't think they have the right to be called British Telerubbishcommunications either, has to be Backward Telecommunications as that is what it is!

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Jason Bunn

Thursday, April 21, 2011
Ziggy thanks for your response I may not be listened to but you must have read what I have written or you would not have added your view.Ps thank-you for your advice.I must go now I've got to take our 2 rescue dogs for their walk and get my old age pension from the post office.

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LFB

Thursday, April 21, 2011
LFB - perhaps you should consider a few lessons in how to use English language when writing. Then your rants might have a bit more of a chance of being listened to, instead of the current response which is to dismiss you because you're clearly a drivelling idiot.

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Ziggy

Wednesday, April 20, 2011
get alife

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LFB

Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Its a pity them 200 businesses did not back the campaign against the incinerator, after all they are in Norfolk or is it as long as its not in our backyard. Thats alright its only KIng's Lynn,they can have all our rubbish and the rest of Norfolks, But don't get to cosy out of the 270millon + a third of that (9 millon) will be toxic ash, which will have to go into HAZARDOUS waste landfill sites.Ps 270millon+annually.for 25 years

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LFB

Tuesday, April 19, 2011
I hope this campaign gets somewhere, but BT has already excluded Norfolk exchanges from any modernisation this year or next. I hope the local legions of Tory voters are glad at how market forces are connecting Norfolk to the 21st Century. The current stagnation will only leave the county some thirty years behind Singapore. No fast broadband, no motorway, is there some patten here?

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chasboz

Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Why don't these businesses stop whining about the speed of broadband, haven't they heard of belt and braces use the telephone.I don't know what they do if there was a major power cut.Anyhow that 50M from the goverment which is tax payers money could be spent better on keeping a day centre for the elderly open.Get your priorities in order.mr murphy is already going to waste about 650M on a incinerator, more tax payers money. Anybody can look big when they are spending other peoples money.especially taxpayers money.

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LFB

Tuesday, April 19, 2011
It's a shame only one of our MPs could be bothered to turn out for this. Maybe if people vote AV in then our MPs will no longer be sitting in comfortable safe seats and will begin to start working much harder for the area.

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john smith

Monday, April 18, 2011