The Northumberland schools set to get superfast broadband under new project

In May 2019, we reported that a number of schools in the county had been selected for a pilot scheme, as part of the Government’s £200million roll-out of full-fibre broadband to rural locations.

At their meeting on Tuesday, September 8, Northumberland County Council cabinet members are set to approve the grant from the Department for Education’s Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) schools programme.

The scheme is estimated to cost £537,000, but a report to councillors explains that while this could change as sites are surveyed, the Government funding awarded would be increased as necessary.

The 11 schools in the first tranche are: Abbeyfields First School, Morpeth; Acomb First School; Cambo First School; Cambois Primary School; Henshaw CofE Primary School; Hipsburn Primary School; New Hartley First School; St Michael’s CofE Primary School, Alnwick; Tweedmouth Prior Park First School; Whitley Chapel CofE First School; Wylam First School.

The second tranche of seven schools features: Ellingham CofE Aided Primary School; Kielder Community First School; Ringway Primary School, Guidepost; Seaton Delaval First School; Seghill First School; Shilbottle Primary School; St Paul’s RC VA Primary School. Alnwick.

The report says: ‘The move to a gigabit fibre connection would improve the connectivity to the school, access to online resources and save time through more efficient ways of working.

‘The connection would also potentially benefit surrounding communities with the fibre infrastructure installed making future build costs cheaper for the area.

‘Select nearby buildings would also benefit from the installation if they are connected to the same infrastructure.’

One gigabit equals 1,000 megabits, so represents an extremely fast connection.

The overall RGC programme is a £200million UK-wide programme focused on rural areas.

It follows the Government identifying in 2018 that approximately 10% of UK premises, largely in rural and remote areas, would be unlikely to receive gigabit-capable connections commercially by 2033.

In July, we reported that a project to equip 271 public buildings in rural Northumberland with full-fibre broadband is underway, with the first sites to be connected in the ‘next few months’.

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