According to my County Councillor, one of his five pledges is super-fast broadband for every business and household in Stowmarket, Stowupland and Creeting St Peter. And naturally, he expects me to be grateful for his hard work and that of his colleagues.
Yet, it could have happened sooner, as the Ipswich Star reported on 4 June 2011;
Last month the Government announced the county had missed out on £20million from its Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK).
Had it proved successful, the investment would have been coupled with a further £20m from the private sector and £2m from other sources to deliver superfast broadband across Suffolk.
But the bid was rejected, with BDUK saying a major reason was the lack of local funding support.
Bosses are set to meet with BDUK later this month to get more detailed feedback, with a view to submitting a revised bid as soon as possible.
It is understood Suffolk will need to substantially increase the local authority funding contribution to £10m.
They did finally put up a sufficient contribution, and work has begun. There is a further catch though, in that superfast broadband will not reach the smaller villages... like Creeting St Peter. We're too far from the telephone exchange, and our infrastructure isn't up to it.
So, not exactly a pledge to be proud of, or one that he has any real intention of doing much about. The work will be done due to the Coalition Government which, if memory serves, is made rather more competent by the inclusion of several Liberal Democrats, in spite of the neglect of Suffolk Conservatives.
But don't worry, Gary won't be coming to talk to you, so you won't have to worry about what you might say to him. But given that he hasn't delivered a single leaflet to the village, or met a single voter outside of the occasional Parish Council meeting, you probably were grateful for the reminder of what he looks like.
The whole broadband business is a sorry tale. Setting aside whether BT is really the right monopoly to deliver it (despite schmoozing MPs with Olympic tickets and so forth), it seems to me that if SCC and its present majority incumbents were serious about this, then some of the vast treasure chest of capital they have amassed might have been a useful spur to businesses in the County. This could have been an ideal opportunity to "speculate to accumulate", or, more properly, to invest sensibly in the future of Suffolk.
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