THOUSANDS of rural homes and businesses around Wellington will only be able to receive a quarter of the broadband speeds they were promised by a Government-backed scheme, a shocked county councillor has discovered.

Cllr John Thorne, whose Blackdown and Neroche division covers Wellington east and the Blackdown Hills, said the revelation was a new low point in what he described as the ‘debacle’ of Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS).

CDS is run jointly by Somerset and Devon county councils and is investing £36.8 million of public money in an open access fibre network to deliver 1Gbps broadband speeds to more than 56,000 homes and businesses across the two counties.

But Cllr Thorne has now learned that the chosen CDS contractor, Airband UK, is only offering potential broadband customers a choice of two packages – 100Mbps and 250Mbps.

It means maximum broadband speeds available will be just 25 per cent of the gigabit-capable fibre network and slower than the speeds already available for people living in urban Wellington.

And despite being described as ‘open access’ for residents and businesses to choose their preferred broadband provider, they will initially have to sign up to one of Airband’s packages for a minimum of 18 months.

Read the full report in today’s WWN.