Today, Broadband Delivery UK (the department in Government responsible, amongst other things, for giving grants to county councils for faster broadband) announced their second wave of funding. The lucky counties who were allocated funding were:
- Devon and Somerset – £30m
- Norfolk – £15m
- Wiltshire – £4m
Exact figures will be finalised in the coming weeks.
Although Kent was not successful in this second round (in spite of a very compelling campaign) we are hopeful that the remaining 15 Councils that put in bids across England will hear what their allocations will be sometime later this year.
The press release did say:
“The Government will be announcing all local broadband area allocations in the near future. These allocations will be made available once BDUK has reached agreement with English local authorities and the devolved administrations on other sources of funds and their plans for delivery. BDUK has been engaging closely with the three devolved administrations that are developing national broadband plans. Allocations for the devolved administrations will be announced at the same time as the announcement of local authority allocations is made.”
So basically the third round is all about how much money is given to the remaining English counties, Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland. Kent should get some money – but whether it is the £42m that was asked for is very uncertain.
In the meantime, for Goudhurst and our Project Golden Thread, this news means that we need to work extra hard on refining our plans and looking for additional funding to add to the grant we were given last Friday (see previous article).
Source: http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/media_releases/8167.aspx