Mrs Hazel Watson (Dorking Hills) to move under Standing Order 11 as follows:
Council notes that:
1. the County Council has set as an objective that 99% of Surrey households will receive fibre based broadband by the end of 2014 and that 94% of households would achieve Superfast Broadband speeds of 15Mbps or more;
2. the Superfast Surrey Broadband Programme was established to ensure that these targets were met and to address the situation of residents in the County that were excluded from any fibre broadband coverage roll-out plans by commercial operators – with the result that more than 75,000 premises out of 84,000 premises in the Intervention Area are now able to access download speeds of at least 15mbps;
3. to be able to connect to fibre-based broadband, the distance from the fibre-enabled cabinet to the individual premises can be no more than 1.8km; a significant number of properties included in the commercial roll-out are further than 1.8km from the fibre-enabled cabinet that serves the area and as a result residents living in these areas are not being provided with a Superfast broadband service from the commercial operator;
4. areas that are currently part of the commercial roll-out of Superfast broadband that are not being served by the commercial operators cannot be included in the Intervention Area and become part of the Superfast Surrey Broadband Programme and thus are unable to receive a Superfast broadband service at all.
Council calls for the Leader of the Council to review the contracts with the commercial operators providing Superfast broadband to Surrey residents and to identify the emerging gaps in Superfast broadband coverage (such as areas in the commercial roll-out that are further than 1.8km from the fibre-enabled box that covers their area) and to develop solutions to ensure that either the commercial operators provide Superfast broadband to residents living in these areas or that the Surrey Superfast Broadband programme is extended to cover residents living in these areas.
Minutes:
Under Standing order 12.3, the Council agreed to debate this motion.
Under Standing Order 12.1, Mrs Watson moved the motion which was:
‘Council notes that:
1. the County Council has set as an objective that 99% of Surrey households will receive fibre based broadband by the end of 2014 and that 94% of households would achieve Superfast Broadband speeds of 15Mbps or more;
2. the Superfast Surrey Broadband Programme was established to ensure that these targets were met and to address the situation of residents in the County that were excluded from any fibre broadband coverage roll-out plans by commercial operators – with the result that more than 75,000 premises out of 84,000 premises in the Intervention Area are now able to access download speeds of at least 15mbps;
3. to be able to connect to fibre-based broadband, the distance from the fibre-enabled cabinet to the individual premises can be no more than 1.8km; a significant number of properties included in the commercial roll-out are further than 1.8km from the fibre-enabled cabinet that serves the area and as a result residents living in these areas are not being provided with a Superfast broadband service from the commercial operator;
4. areas that are currently part of the commercial roll-out of Superfast broadband that are not being served by the commercial operators cannot be included in the Intervention Area and become part of the Superfast Surrey Broadband Programme and thus are unable to receive a Superfast broadband service at all.
Council calls for the Leader of the Council to review the contracts with the commercial operators providing Superfast broadband to Surrey residents and to identify the emerging gaps in Superfast broadband coverage (such as areas in the commercial roll-out that are further than 1.8km from the fibre-enabled box that covers their area) and to develop solutions to ensure that either the commercial operators provide Superfast broadband to residents living in these areas or that the Surrey Superfast Broadband programme is extended to cover residents living in these areas.’
Mrs Watson made the following points in support of her motion:
· Superfast Broadband was essential in today’s Digital Age but some households in parts of Surrey were unable to receive it.
· The County Council had set objectives for the percentage of households receiving the fibre based Broadband and these had not been achieved.
· The Intervention Area was supposed to fill the gap of the service provided by the commercial operator. However, there were still areas where the Superfast Broadband Service was not being provided.
· She requested that the Leader of the Council acted now to identify the emerging gaps and develop solutions so that the Broadbandcover was extended to cover those households in the affected areas.
The motion was formally seconded by Mr Orrick.
Mr Martin moved an amendment at the meeting, which was formally seconded by Mr Kemp. He proposed deleting the last paragraph of Mrs Watson’s motion and replacing it with the following paragraph:
‘Council congratulates the Superfast Surrey team on its significant and successful rollout to 77,000 premises so far, acknowledges that Surrey is now the best broadband connected county in the country and requests the team to complete the delivery of the contract, and by the end of March 2015, to identify options for using any remaining funds to either focus on the existing Intervention Area or to broaden the scope of the programme.’
Copies of the amendment were tabled at the meeting.
Speaking to his amendment, Mr Martin made the following points:
· That his amendment had replaced the last paragraph of the original motion.
· That the review of contracts was beyond the scope of the County Council.
· He explained the history of the Superfast Broadband programme from 2011 and the reasons why the County Council had embarked on its ambitious programme, which had resulted in the county being the best broadband connected county in the country.
· He stressed the importance of this achievement and the positive effectiveness that it was having on the provision of Digital Services and the benefits to Surrey residents.
· That the County Council had allocated £20m in 2012 for the Superfast Surrey Broadband Programme and cited the improvements made to cabling and telephone exchanges in Surrey in 2013.
· He acknowledged that there were a small number of difficult to reach households and premises and had requested that BT undertook a review of the remaining 5000 premises in the Intervention Area. However, there was a need to balance the outcome of this review against the remaining funds in the programme.
· Finally, he urged Members to support his amendment which recognised the achievements of the programme to date and proposed action to bring the best possible service to Surrey residents.
Speaking to the amendment, Members made the following points:
· The amendment gave the opportunity to celebrate the achievement of the Superfast Broadband programme.
· It had brought economic benefits to Surrey.
· That it had been accepted from the outset of the programme that some areas would be hard to reach and there was a need to balance this against the funding available for the programme.
· It was important to enable people to work at home, particularly in rural areas and the lack of access to Superfast Broadband had been a huge issue in some areas.
· The commitment to look at options for using the remaining funds was welcomed.
· The original motion had not stated the achievements to date, which the amendment did.
· This initiative had been very successful and was received positively in many areas.
· The County Council Network (CCN) had requested, on 3 September 2014, a detailed report of Superfast Broadband programmes in each county and would be debating this issue on 9 March 2015.
· Concern that this technology could be obsolete in a few years.
· The amendment had deleted the objectives set out in the final paragraph of the original motion and did not seek to find a solution.
· An open invite for Members to contact or visit the Superfast Surrey Broadband team.
The amendment was put to the vote with 54 Members voting for it and 11 Members voting against it. There was 1 abstention.
The amendment was carried and became the substantive motion. This was put to the vote and Members agreed it.
Therefore, it was:
RESOLVED:
‘Council notes that:
1. the County Council has set as an objective that 99% of Surrey households will receive fibre based broadband by the end of 2014 and that 94% of households would achieve Superfast Broadband speeds of 15Mbps or more;
2. the Superfast Surrey Broadband Programme was established to ensure that these targets were met and to address the situation of residents in the County that were excluded from any fibre broadband coverage roll-out plans by commercial operators – with the result that more than 75,000 premises out of 84,000 premises in the Intervention Area are now able to access download speeds of at least 15mbps;
3. to be able to connect to fibre-based broadband, the distance from the fibre-enabled cabinet to the individual premises can be no more than 1.8km; a significant number of properties included in the commercial roll-out are further than 1.8km from the fibre-enabled cabinet that serves the area and as a result residents living in these areas are not being provided with a Superfast broadband service from the commercial operator;
4. areas that are currently part of the commercial roll-out of Superfast broadband that are not being served by the commercial operators cannot be included in the Intervention Area and become part of the Superfast Surrey Broadband Programme and thus are unable to receive a Superfast broadband service at all.
Council congratulates the Superfast Surrey team on its significant and successful rollout to 77,000 premises so far, acknowledges that Surrey is now the best broadband connected county in the country and requests the team to complete the delivery of the contract, and by the end of March 2015, to identify options for using any remaining funds to either focus on the existing Intervention Area or to broaden the scope of the programme.