Broadband - Rural Connectivity Schemes

Lincolnshire County Council via their Lincolnshire Broadband Programme are trying to stimulate interest from parishes and communities in two Government schemes that are designed to provide funding for potential community based schemes.

Information from Steve Brookes - LCC Onlincolnshire Programme Manager.

The onlincolnshire broadband programme is committed to providing Superfast Broadband to as many of the county's premises as possible. You will be aware of the ongoing broadband deployment which hopefully, has already had a positive impact in all or part of your parish.

Whilst onlincolnshire, through Lincolnshire County Council, will continue with the current and planned deployments, I feel it might be appropriate to raise awareness of two Government funded schemes that allow businesses and more importantly, communities, to take advantage of money that has been set aside by Government to allow them to benefit from gigabit speed broadband.

This first scheme (Gigabit Voucher Scheme) sits outside the parameters of the onlincolnshire programme, but should there be sufficient interest, we will happily get involved and assist in any way we can.

I have attached a link below to the Government webpage that details the scheme and who is eligible to apply etc. Please do take a look as we feel this is a good opportunity for communities to benefit from a future-proof broadband connection.

https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/

The second scheme is the recently announced 'Rural Gigabit Connectivity Scheme (RGC). As with the first scheme, this sits outside the parameters of the onlincolnshire programme, but we are actively looking at communities where this may apply and will bid for funding accordingly. Should you feel that your community might benefit from this scheme, please do get in touch and we will be happy to advise accordingly.

I have attached a link below to the Government website where more details are provided.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rgc-programme-key-information

At the end of this letter, I have also added a brief table that details eligibility criteria for both schemes. For clarity, the Gigabit Voucher Scheme is the first column and the Rural Gigabit Connectivity scheme is the second column.

From our perspective, we will be happy to become engaged once individuals/communities have expressed an interest and in the case of a community scheme, once a community lead has been appointed. We do see this as very real opportunity for our communities to further benefit from the work that has already been done.

Please do let me know if the broadband team can help further in this matter.

 Yours faithfully

Steve Brookes

Lincolnshire Broadband Programme Manager

stephen.brookes@lincolnshire.gov.uk