Connecting Mid Wales
Broadband
As well as a thriving agricultural and tourist economy Montgomeryshire is a hub of high tech firms and innovative enterprises. Just last week, Chemostrat, a global specialist geological company doubled its office space in Buttington Cross Enterprise Park in Welshpool creating several new jobs.
One of the most important issues facing Montgomeryshire is the challenge posed by a lack of high speed internet. According to Ofcom statistics, the gap between average rural and urban download speeds has grown by 119% between May 2011 and November 2013. This affects those who want to establish or expand companies, but it also affects families and those who want basic services such as doing homework or watching TV online. As more services move online, we must make sure that they are still accessible and that Montgomeryshire is not left in the slow lane.
I have taken a particular interest in this issue as Chair of the Assembly’s cross-party group on Digital Communication. Glyn Davies and I recently called a meeting to discuss broadband provision in Montgomeryshire and invited BT’s Director in Wales, Ann Benyon, to attend. The Welsh Government and BT have partnered for the ‘Superfast Cymru’ project, which is installing high speed fibre optic broadband across Wales. Work is currently being carried out in Newtown, Welshpool and Machynlleth, and BT are telling us that these towns will have high speed broadband of at least 24Mbs after the summer.
I’m keen that rural areas outside of main towns can also expect this – whilst this is good news for those towns, I made sure to emphasise that we need solutions for the many ‘not-spots’ in Mid Wales, where people and businesses suffer from no – or unacceptably slow – broadband speeds. It is also important to me to me to see that other, particularly local, providers are able to get involved in the scheme, including Xwavia, which is based outside Welshpool.
To see when the programme aims to reach your area, and for further updates, you can visit www.superfast-cymru.com/where-and-when.
Transport
The work has now started on the Newtown bypass. Contractors have been in discussions with landowners over recent months and the land is being surveyed. Actual construction will start next summer and the building stage should take no more than two years. This is a hugely important issue for Mid Wales as a whole, as we are a key conduit and the whole road network will be feel the benefit of this development.
I have maps of the bypass route in my office, if you would like a copy then please feel free to call in.
The work on Penarth Corner is finally completed. I am glad that the temporary traffic lights have gone but I raised concerns with the Transport Minister about the length of time taken to fix a collapsed culvert. I also asked the First Minister this week what lessons had been learned given how long there appeared not to be any work actually being carried out.