Essex County Council (ECC) is a big step further forward to starting work on upgrading the superfast broadband network. On Thursday 9 May 2013 the Essex BDUK Project was given the green light by Government to issue its tender documents and was also told that the State Aid area where public funds can be spent has been given provisional approval. Government have also indicated that they are keen to see the Essex project move as quickly as possible.
The Superfast Essex Programme which oversees the Essex BDUK Project, the Make the Connection campaign and other broadband initiatives across Greater Essex has also achieved a milestone in receiving more than 10,000 responses to its Make the Connection broadband survey. This is one of the highest ever survey responses achieved by the county council and in order to encourage yet more responses the Superfast Essex Team is offering quality incentives to get the number of responses up.
Essex County Councillor Kevin Bentley, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth, said: “This level of response is a good sign that Essex is serious about broadband and that many residents and businesses have expressed a need for superfast broadband. We will continue to urge others to register their need as the team works on delivering the project”.
The Make the Connection campaign is also aimed at wider engagement with Essex residents and businesses. The team has visited more than 50 parish councils in the last 3 months with more planned for the future. The parishes can be found on the ‘Events’ page of the www.superfastessex.org website. These visits provide useful information about the project and what can be expected.
Win a free Dell laptop!
Superfast Essex is providing ‘Dell XPS 10 Tablets’ to two lucky survey responders. The winners will be announced on 27 September 2013. The prize draw is open to all, and will include all those who have responded to the survey since it started in September 2012. Minimum information required will be a landline number, e-mail address and postcode.
Cllr Bentley continued: “For the success of Superfast Essex and the delivery of the BDUK project it’s essential that we continue conversations with residents and businesses. The end users are the many residents and business across Essex who deserve better connectivity. The Superfast Essex Team has engaged with the business and community/voluntary groups to ensure their inclusion. Essex has stressed that coverage of superfast broadband across the county is top priority with connectivity to business parks remaining high on the agenda.”