A £15.1million boost to North Yorkshire’s digital infrastructure has been revealed in the Chancellor’s spring statement.
North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) and its wholly-owned company NYnet applied for funding from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Local Full Fibre Wave 2 Challenge Fund.
The Chancellor announced in his spring statement that the bid had been successful. The money will be used to connect nearly 400 public sector sites with fibre broadband across 16 towns. This will provide the basis for the expansion of fibre connectivity which will add to the extensive digital infrastructure in North Yorkshire.
The proposed towns are Harrogate and Knaresborough, Skipton, Northallerton, Ripon, Richmond, Leyburn, Scarborough, Malton and Norton, Whitby, Easingwold, Thirsk, Selby, Tadcaster, Pickering, Stokelsly/Great Ayton and Settle.
The leader of NYCC, Councillor Carl Les, said: “We had strong support for our bid from all relevant North Yorkshire partners including the MPs, boroughs, districts, health and blue light services. This was very helpful to the strength of our bid.’’
NYCC’s executive member for broadband, Councillor Don Mackenzie, said: “The success of this bid underlines yet again the progress which NYCC and NYnet have made in creating a very strong digital infrastructure in the county, which is good for our residents and for our businesses.’’
“The next step after finalising the agreement with DCMS is to undertake a procurement process to get the best value for North Yorkshire. This be the focus of activity this year with the deployment of the fibre likely to start next year.’’