Agenda item

To consider the report of the head of HR, IT and Technical Services (attached).

The Cabinet member for Vale, Councillor Mike Murray was in attendance, together with Suzanne Malcolm economic development manager. They introduced the report on Broadband.

The committee were invited to:

·           comment upon the roll-out of superfast broadband in the districts

·           make recommendations to the relevant cabinet member in terms of any further intervention.

The project has broadly been successful, aided by government money. Now looking for what is the scope of what needs to be done to address remaining gaps in coverage. How many premises will still not be served by broadband across South and Vale and what the cost is to deliver to these premises (may depend on location and topography). Average cost per premise in phase one was £844 and in phase two was £2,418. There is a need for cost benefit analysis in addressing the remaining premises, particularly if aiming for 100 per cent connectivity. There may be some more complex solutions for the final premises. BT are currently modelling the remaining premises and these are being modelled in different bands of intervention level and cost per premise.

Point of clarification on the report. Paragraph 10… a further £5.58 million (not £2 million) reflected in appendix one, Oxford LEP added £2 million to the programme. The overall total added in December 2015 was £5.58 million.

A total of £10.68 million investment was made in phase two, following the £25 million investment in phase one to raise the connectivity.

The local economy has a heavy reliance on small and medium sized enterprises many of which are home based and reliant on good broadband speeds. The purpose of this project is to enable these enterprises to work efficiently and effectively and to grow locally.

The project has been delivered by the “Better Broadband” team at Oxfordshire County Council with whom officers have worked closely to ensure effective spend of the councils’ investment.

The committee discussed this item.

·           disappointment was expressed that the Cabinet member for South, or a substitute was not present

·           inclusion of 5G and other types of future proofing

·           a question was raised as to whether putting the additional public money in has increased the speed at which BT would have enabled the work to be done. The response was that BT only put the money in because the other partners were at the table, it wouldn’t have been commercially viable for them otherwise

·           before Phase 2 is launched, the project officers were aware of which areas BT and other providers were planning to service commercially in the following three years

·           there has been a take up in excess of 40 per cent in Oxfordshire, which is double the national average. This will entitle Oxfordshire County Council and the district councils to clawback some funds under the gainshare scheme agreed with BT.

·           the purpose of the project is about enabling premises with superfast broadband to support operation and growth of the small and medium sized enterprises sector in the rural economy.

·           users have to upgrade their current packages and pay additional costs to their service providers to get the superfast packages.

·           the project operates on an open infrastructure which is owned by Openreach but is accessible and can be used by anyone. Openreach also take on the maintenance.

·           cashback from any savings from the councils’ investment in phase two will come back to the district councils.

There were no further recommendations from Scrutiny on this item.