Poor Broadband May Hamper Dorset Council’s Cost Cutting Drive Toward Digital

The Dorset Council in England recently set out its proposals for a £416m budget for 2025/26, which included major cost-saving measures of around £44m and some of that involves the greater adoption of digital technologies, as well as AI. But councillors have been quick to warn that “pockets” of poor broadband and a lack of digital skills, among some groups, could create problems.

The council is currently in the process of adopting somewhat of an “invest to save” approach, where it’s hoped that spending on new technologies over the next year or two and encouraging local people to “self-serve” via those solutions will result in savings over the longer term. But this only works well if your constituents all have the necessary digital skills and access to at least a viable broadband service.

At present around 98% of premises in Dorset (excluding Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) should have access to a 24-30Mbps+ capable fixed broadband service and 61% for gigabit speeds (1000Mbps+), although data from Thinkbroadband does indicate that 0.74% of premises in the county cannot yet access USO speeds of 10Mbps and this falls to 0.2% for 2Mbps. Suffice to say, basic internet connectivity isn’t as poor today as it used to be, but gaps do remain.

Speaking of which, rural ISP Wessex Internet recently announced that they’d begun the build phase of their new £33.5m state aid supported Project Gigabit contract in Dorset and South Somerset (here), which will extend their gigabit speed FTTP broadband network to cover 21,400 hard-to-reach premises. So improvements on the connectivity side are still being made, which is also true for 4G mobile networks under the ‘Shared Rural Network’ project.

According to the Dorset Echo, Cllr Sherry Jespersen similarly warned that digital skills aren’t static and someone who might be OK with technology aged 70, could still struggle as they reach 80, or 90 etc. Some of this may be due to issues of worsening disability / health as people age (poor sight, memory etc.). Conservative group leader, Cllr Andrew Parry, added that “cost savings and improved customer services are not the best of bedfellows,” before warning that if the planned technology did not work as it should, the council could end up alienating both staff and the public.

However, the council’s Corporate Development Director, Aidan Dunn, told councillors that Dorset was already falling behind the technology curve and, with financial pressures getting worse, had little choice but to use systems already being used elsewhere to make some savings while trying to improve services. The budget announcement suggests that the council will attempt to find £14.4m in savings just from “operating more efficiently“.

The issues are of course not unique to Dorset Council and every region, as well as the whole country, will face similar challenges in the march toward a much more digital future.