Nanette Milne, Scottish Conservative MSP for the North East has called on rural communities across the North East to submit application to Broadband Rural Seed Fund following the launch of the fund by Community Broadband Scotland. The Community Broadband Scotland initiative will act as a one-stop-shop for rural community groups, providing them with information and advice to find solutions for broadband delivery in their areas.
Communities will be eligible to apply for seed funding under the initiative to enable them to obtain greater access to the internet.
Recent report have shown that parts of the Aberdeenshire had some of the lowest broadband speeds in the UK. According to recent studies – parts of Edzell had a download speed of 0.25Mbps meaning that downloading one song would take two minutes and 40 seconds. Banchory, was also recently rated 17th worst in the UK for broadband connection at just (1.95Mb).
Nanette Milne, Scottish Conservative MSP for the North East said:
“I welcome the establishment of Community Broadband Scotland’s Broadband Rural Seed Fund.
“Recent report have shown that parts of the Aberdeenshire had some of the lowest broadband speeds in the UK.
“Significant sums of money have been provided by the UK Conservative Government and European Parliament to the Scottish Government to invest in broadband and I hope this initiative will help to connect rural communities.
“It is important that this technology and infrastructure is made available to homes and businesses across the North East and I have sought to lobby Ministers to priorities investment for rural communities. I will continue to make the case for additional investment for other North East communities.
“Ministers have given me an assurance that they will listen to the needs of North East communities both urban and rural and that specific problems and infrastructure requirement will be taken into account.
“I hope that rural communities across the North East will submit applications to the Broadband Rural Seed Fund and will take up the opportunity to seek support for projects to take forward community broadband solutions.”