Surrey leader hails high-speed broadband plans

Surrey County Council’s leader Dr Andrew Povey has hailed the Government’s plans to provide high-speed broadband across the country as an important step towards “localising modern power”.

Dr Povey said: “I made getting more people online a priority for the council earlier this year and it is a priority for the Surrey Strategic Partnership* too. We have already seen fantastic results. Nearly nine out of 10 applications for school places this September were made online after an 18,000 increase from a year earlier and hundreds of people have taken advantage of free computer courses at Surrey libraries.

“This initiative, which will allow councils to bid for funds to upgrade fibre optic ‘hubs’, is a real step towards localising modern power and recognises the importance of freeing us up to make decisions in the best interest of local people.

“The Government’s commitment to creating the infrastructure for high-speed broadband across the country by 2015 will help us enormously in reaching our target of getting 10,000 more local people using the internet by 2012 through Race Online**.

“We are now well into the 21st Century and it is important that we are a world leader when it comes to technological advancement. The internet is already central to the daily lives of so many people and as organisations continue to provide more and more services online it is an essential tool for everyone.”