Council renews pledge to lead the way in broadband provision

A review of Ashford Borough Council’s commitment to improving broadband and digital connectivity has highlighted many successes over the past year – and identified that more needs to be done to ensure that all local residents and businesses benefit from access to fast and reliable internet connections.

A report to Cabinet on Thursday 28 September reminded members that the council has been pro-active in its approach to improving broadband and digital connectivity for many years – a policy that is embedded in the Local Plan and which forms a cornerstone of ABC’s own Corporate Plan.

It has built an enviable reputation as an authority that internet service providers and housing developers can work with when it comes to planning and delivering broadband and digital infrastructure improvements in the borough.

Councillors heard that Ashford is one of the few local authorities to have dedicated officer time to improving broadband within Kent. Successes such as a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) policy in Ashford’s Local Plan have placed Ashford as a leading authority on broadband improvements.

Recent successes in numbers

A whole raft of initiatives over the past 12 months has helped to deliver:

• Increasing Superfast broadband coverage (30 Mbps or higher) to 93% of local premises.
• Increasing FTTP coverage by 27% to nearly half of the borough’s premises.
• An increase of 2% in the number of premises covered by 4G from all four Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to nearly three in four premises in the borough.
• A reduction to 0.4% of premises unable to receive 10Mbps download speed.

The report adds: “However, it is clear that more can be done to improve digital connectivity for local residents and businesses. We are seeing significant investment coming forward, especially in the form of Openreach and Netomnia providing FTTP for existing premises which will boost Full Fibre and Gigabit-speed broadband significantly to at least 55,000 premises as part of the current rollout.

“Beyond this commercial investment, the Government’s Phase 2 Gigabit Programme and allocated funds to connect Kent’s commercially unviable premises presents a great opportunity for Ashford over the coming months and years.

“Covid-19 and ongoing working from home trends have highlighted the issues that affect rural communities that don’t have decent digital connectivity. However rural premises are also in areas that will likely be left until last to be connected due to the commercial nature of FTTP rollouts.

“It will be important for the next 12 months to ensure the current planned commercial investment is delivered successfully, including through the continued support of the Ashford Digital Enablers Group. However the main focus should be to support the Kent & Medway Project Gigabit procurement and facilitate the ongoing private provider rollout, while also promoting UK Gigabit Vouchers for rural community-led rollouts when these are available for Kent again.”

The Project Gigabit programme above refers to a Government allocation of £112m to Kent & Medway to deliver gigabit-capable connections to areas that are not expected to benefit from telecom providers’ own upgrade programmes. This would cover 72,000 premises in Kent including an estimated 6,400 premises in the Ashford borough. Procurement is underway to identify a provider that will undertake this project for Kent.

The outcome of this procurement was due to be November 2023 but an announcement is likely to be made in early 2024.

Stepping up the support for better broadband

Cabinet noted the content of the report and acknowledged the broadband work undertaken in the past year. It reaffirmed that the delivery of broadband should remain a key priority in the Corporate Plan and approved a series of actions designed to accelerate further improvements, including:

• Continue to work with broadband providers to support improved connections and increase investment.
• Continue to support the rollout of FTTP to the council’s housing stock.
• Proactively engage with Mobile Network Operators and Mobile UK to seek improved mobile connectivity.
• Support KCC in their involvement in the Gigabit Programme and the delivery of this major investment and to seek maximum coverage across Ashford through this investment.
• Support the promotion of UK Gigabit Vouchers and related community projects to deliver digital infrastructure improvements in rural areas.
  
  

Council Leader Cllr Noel Ovenden said: “This excellent report highlights where the borough is provisioned regarding broadband and what we are currently doing to improve connectivity in both urban and rural settings. It describes the vital work that should be continued in the following year and the risks that inadequate broadband pose.”