Bury North MP David Nuttall is calling on some of almost £1 million funding allocated to Greater Manchester to be used to deliver faster broadband speeds around the borough.
Mr Nuttall has said some residents in Bury are “disadvantaged” because they do not receive high speed internet access.
Greater Manchester was allocated £990,000 by Broadband Delivery UK, which is part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The funding aims to improve access across eight of the county’s metropolitan boroughs, not including Manchester or Salford as they are not part of the funding arrangement.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has consulted with broadband providers, and many BL8 and BL9 postcodes covering areas such as Greenmount, Tottington and Nangreaves.
Tottington was found to have no prov-iders deliver-ing even the most “basic” broadband, up to speeds of two Megabits per second (Mbps).
A number of areas across the borough were also found to have no providers of “Next Generation Access”, classed as superfast broadband of speeds up to 30Mbps.
Mr Nuttall said: “Those who live in areas which have very slow broadband access speeds are seriously disadvantaged in this digital age. Although in recent months we have seen some progress — for example in Nangreaves thanks to the hard work of local residents — there is still much to be done.
“The Bury Rural Inequalities Forum has been working hard on this problem for a number of years looking for solutions in those areas which still do not have realistic broadband access speeds. I am still hopeful that some of the almost £1million allocated to Greater Manchester will be spent in Bury to improve broadband speeds.”
TfGM has announced a public consultation which will run until August 1 for feedback on broadband access.
The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities is also applying for European funding to allow every home and business in the country two have at least 2 Mbps, and more than 90 per cent of access to superfast broadband.
Mr Nuttall added: “I urge constituents who are concerned to use the consultation exercise to make their views known.”
To get involved, visit tfgm.com/GMBroadbandConsultation
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