Agenda item

Planning and infrastructure for growth, including broadband

Overview of strategic planning and infrastructure research findings, analysis and emerging policy proposals and report of recent engagement with government and councils on broadband issues.

 

 

Minutes:

The report provided an update on Planning and Infrastructure for growth, including broadband: overview of strategic planning and infrastructure research findings, analysis, and emerging policy proposals and reported of recent engagement with government and councils on broadband issues.

 

Board members raised the following points in the discussion that followed:

 

·         LEP’s were important although they should not become like non-departmental public bodies

 

·         LEP’s should be developed further and be made much more co-terminus across authority boundaries.

 

·         Broadband needed to reach all areas and the speed should be as fast as possible. There was a lack of connectivity in rural areas.

 

·         EU regulations in the broadband area needed to be checked.

 

Decision

 

The Board discussed the emerging policy proposals for the Planning and Infrastructure for Growth project and commented on the draft LGA response to DCMS and HMT Digital Communications Infrastructure Strategy Consultation.

 

With specific reference to p17 of the report concerning broadband “ensuring that councils have the access to timely data from BT about planned broadband coverage and speed”, the Board considered that there needed to be tougher line taken with BT as more areas of the country needed to be reached in ensuring fast broadband. It was clear that this report was “work in progress” and more needed to be done to make this more robust, checking relevant EU Regulations and contacting BT.

 

Supporting documents: