At a meeting at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham today, Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, met Tim O’Sullivan from BT to press for progress on delivering fast broadband for her constituency.
Speaking after the meeting, Theresa Villiers said: “It was good to have the chance to raise the concerns of my constituents with BT today. Access to fast broadband services is very important to my constituents. Many now have access to faster services but I am worried about continuing gaps in provision.”
“Some of those gaps are in High Barnet and Totteridge and my first question today for Tim O’Sullivan of BT was whether the current broadband improvement programme would be expanded.”
“I welcomed the news from Mr O’Sullivan that BT has allocated a further £50 million to upgrading broadband services. I also received the assurance that plugging gaps in the coverage of urban and suburban areas was going to be an important priority for the work covered with the new funding.”
“I learned today that BT Openreach is currently deciding which areas will benefit from the new work programme. I will be writing to BT to press the case for inclusion of my constituency so that more BT cabinets will be upgraded and more of my constituents can get access to the superfast broadband services that they want.”
“I will also keep up the pressure on BT to complete the work which they are already committed to doing in the constituency to upgrade a number of the street cabinets so that they are connected to fibre broadband.”
This is the latest in a number of meetings between Theresa Villiers and BT where she has raised similar points.