The Bath & North East Somerset Council (BNESC) has made the surprising decision not to use £670,000 of central government funding as part of its efforts to improve the local broadband ISP infrastructure, apparently because it would have been too expensive. Instead the council plans to spend just £25,000 on exploring alternatives.

The government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office has so far set aside £530m (could rise to £830m by 2017) to help 90% of "people in each local authority area" get access to a superfast broadband (24Mbps+) service by 2015 (the remaining 10% will only get a minimum speed of at least 2Mbps).

Back in August BDUK set aside £1,430,000 for the West of England region, which covers Bath and North East Somerset, the City of Bristol and South Gloucestershire (here). It estimated that only 14.4% of total premises in the region either had no or very poor broadband access.


Apparently BNESC would need to submit a local plan with the other regional councils in order to be in with a chance of gaining the funds. It must also conduct a survey, which could help it locate the worst affected areas.


It's unclear where BNESC's hefty costs are coming from. Surveys can easily be conducted online or through local newspapers and the plan itself doesn't have to be meticulous (details are often worked out during the tender process). A lack of experienced I.T. people in the council might be one limiting factor.

Some BDUK demands certainly could place a lot of strain upon smaller local authorities. At any rate the situation now leaves the door open for an enterprising infrastructure provider to step in and offer up an alternative. Local people will surely be less than forgiving if, in a few years time, BNESC's choice has failed to deliver.