Concern in Northumberland communities as rural fibre broadband provider hit with winding up petition
A fibre broadband builder that has created networks across Northumberland has been issued with a winding up order by HMRC.
Fusion Fibre, previously known as FACTCO, have customers in Cambois, Amble, Stocksfield and Rothbury.
It follows widespread outages across the company’s network earlier this week. Fusion has been working to bring fast broadband connections to hard-to-reach rural areas alongside Government’s Build Digitial UK (BDUK) unit.
A winding up petition is a legal action taken by a creditor or creditors against a company that owes them money. It is considered to be a last resort, so it is only used when all other approaches to retrieve the debt have failed.
Rothbury councillor Steven Bridgett said he had been concerned about Fusion Fibre for some time and called for clarity for affected residents.
He said: “For more than two years, I have been warning residents in the Rothbury area not to sign up to Fusion Fibre’s broadband service because of a number of serious concerns. These included the absence of 24/7 customer support, and the fact that there were no engineers based in the North East.
“That last point has proved particularly problematic during previous major outages, when the lack of locally based engineers made it far more difficult to restore services to residents in the Rothbury area. I also raised these concerns directly with Building Digital UK (BDUK), but my warnings were ignored.
“This is particularly concerning given that the Rothbury contract has still not been completed, yet BDUK has continued to release public voucher funding to Fusion Fibre. Despite these ongoing issues, Fusion has continued to encourage residents in Rothbury to sign up to its services, as recently as last week.
“BDUK, working alongside Northumberland County Council, must now act quickly to ensure that households across Northumberland which rely on Fusion Fibre are not left without broadband, as residents in Cambois and Amble have reportedly been experiencing since Sunday.
“Public money should not continue to be paid to a company that is subject to a winding-up petition from HM Revenue & Customs. Instead, BDUK should urgently identify and support an alternative provider capable of taking over Fusion Fibre’s network in Northumberland, particularly in Rothbury, to ensure residents are not left without a reliable broadband service.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has contacted Fusion Fibre for comment, but received no response.
Responding to Cllr Bridgett’s comments, a spokesman for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said: “We are aware of the situation involving Fusion Fibre and understand residents in Northumberland will have concerns about their broadband service.
“We would encourage anyone concerned about their service to contact their provider directly for advice.”
BDUK is a unit within DSIT that manages government-subsidized rollout of high-speed broadband to hard-to-reach rural areas.