7 Colchester Business Parks to Benefit from GBP200k Broadband Boost

It’s not uncommon to read about how business parks are sometimes overlooked by the state aid supported roll-out of superfast broadband services, although it now appears as if seven such parks in Colchester (Essex, England) will at least benefit from a new investment of £200,000.

The original investment, which is separate from the on-going Superfast Essex project, was actually revealed some time ago as part of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) and it’s linked Local Growth Deal. But a new report has now added extra details from the related grant applications.

Officially the names of the business parks aren’t known because this information is apparently classified as “commercially sensitive“, although the grant authorisations reveal that two of the parks are the new Knowledge Gateway (University of Essex) and the Colchester Northern Gateway; these are home to 482 businesses and around 8,200 staff.

A Colchester Borough Council spokesman said:

“We are excited to bring greater broadband speeds to Colchester which will see increased speeds for connectivity and make our business areas an even more attractive place to work.”

The report states that £200,000 will come from the SELEP, although the original South East Growth Deal for the area actually states that the SELEP had committed £300,000 to deploying “NGA Broadband” in Colchester business parks and the central Government has also pledged to invest £200,000 into the same thing during 2015/16.

Sadly there are currently no further details on precisely what sort of solution or telecoms providers will be involved in the work.