After months of lobbying Government, Leicestershire County Council and Openreach, Dr Luke Evans MP has welcomed the decision to upgrade the Sketchley Brook estate with superfast broadband in the coming weeks.
In February 2021, residents in Sketchley Brook, Burbage first contacted the MP for Bosworth, for his help with their broadband, after the whole estate suffered from years of poor connection speeds. Since then, Dr Luke has set about trying to rectify the issue right to the top with the Government and the CEO of Openreach, and now the whole estate is finally being upgraded with superfast broadband this month.
Through working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Leicestershire Country Council, and Openreach, it was revealed that the estate had been built without the correct infrastructure for fast broadband speeds, because the developer was not required to do so when planning permission for the estate was originally granted.
Over the summer, Dr Luke was regularly in contact with Matt Warman, the then Minister for Digital Infrastructure, to ensure the Superfast Assurance Board approved the project as quickly as possible. Then in October, Dr Luke met the CEO of Openreach at Conservative Party Conference, and raised Sketchley Brook residents and the problems they were experiencing.
After keeping the project firmly at the top of the agenda throughout the summer and into the Autumn, a completion date of March 2022 for upgrading the entire estate was originally provided by Openreach. To get residents connected as quickly as possible, Dr Luke continued to pursue the issue for Sketchley residents, and was pleased to hear that work to upgrade infrastructure for superfast broadband is currently taking place, with residents being connected in the coming weeks.
Dr Luke added: ‘I’m absolutely delighted that after many months of raising Sketchley Brook and resident's experiences with their broadband, the whole estate will now be upgraded with the infrastructure for superfast connection speeds. It was a pleasure to write to over 300 households to inform them of the good news regarding their broadband, which had blighted their lives for so long.'
'Over the summer I've continued to raise this, and anybody who could have known about Sketchley Brook certainly did by the Autumn. Thank you to all of the residents who contacted me to bring the issue to my attention, and I’m pleased that we were able to get them this result. I would encourage anybody who is still experiencing issues with their broadband to get in touch with me, and I’ll do my best to help.’
Improving broadband is not only a Government priority, buy one of the local priorities for the Bosworth MP. If there are any areas in Hinckley and Bosworth suffering from poor broadband Dr Luke Evans is very keen to work with Openreach and find a solution.
