Boost for street with slowest internet connection

Letchmere Close in Pattingham was revealed to have the 18th slowest broadband speed in Britain in a survey by consumer organisation USwitch in April.

But BT has now announced that Pattingham, Brewood, Shareshill and some parts of Featherstone will benefit from the new high-speed internet connections this year.

Kinver, Enville and Trysull will also receive fibre optic coverage in 2015.

The news has been welcomed by South Staffordshire MP Gavin Williamson, who wrote to BT earlier this year calling for action.

"This is finally righting something which has been a disgrace for some time, and I am glad that something is finally being done," said Mr Williamson.

" A lot of local residents rely on broadband for everything from ordering their daily shopping through to watching their smart TV," he said. "Fast broadband is also extremely important for many of our local businesses, which rely upon it to run their websites, manage orders and communicate with customers."

He said that fibre optic broadband was already available in large swathes of Codsall, Himley and Great Wyrley, and Wombourne was also currently being upgraded, with more than 6,000 premises expected to obtain the new fibre product in the coming months.

Infrastructure work is also ongoing in Codsall, where a further 4,600 premises will benefit.

The few areas that are not currently set to receive fibre optic broadband, which include Halfpenny Green and parts of Essington, have been given a guarantee that they will receive a broadband speed of at least two megabits per second (Mbps) by 2016. Additional funding is currently been sought to bring these areas up to at least superfast speeds.

"There is still, however, more work to be done and we need to ensure that every household and business in the constituency is receiving, at the very minimum, superfast speeds.

"There is a huge difference between 2Mbps and the 80Mbps offered by the fibre optic package, and we need to see that everyone has the opportunity to obtain the service that suits them."

The fibre optic scheme is the result of a recent deal between the Staffordshire Broadband project – led by the County Council with colleagues at Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the Local Enterprise Partnership – and BT to deliver high-speed fibre broadband to the county by spring 2016.

The partnership is building on commercial projects already taking place across Staffordshire, which, together, will result in more than 472,000 premises – around 97 per cent of homes and businesses – having access to fibre broadband.

Mr Williamson said the county council had spent £7.44 million on the scheme, with the same amount coming from the Government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) framework, and a further £12.47 million from BT.