Friday, October 4, 2002

For the past few months, we have been led to believe that if enough people registered for broadband in any one area, BT would offer the service to that community.

Now BT have announced on their website that for the Hebden Bridge exchange: "Broadband is not currently available in your area. A detailed review of your exchange has concluded that enabling it is not viable at the present time."

The Hebden Bridge Web was the first UK community website partly because many of the writers, artists, small businesses and teleworkers living in the surrounding hills were those with the imagination to take the fullest advantage of the new technologies. We have hundreds of local people who are likely to be severely disadvantaged if this service is not made available.

The Hebden Bridge Web feels angry that BT is able to deny us the service without explanation while at the same time spending large amounts of money on an advertising campaign to increase the takeup for broadband.

In an interview in this week's Guardian, Andrew Pinder is described as "the government's e-envoy whose job is to bring Britain online". When talking about broadband, he is quoted as saying that "BT has finally got its act together".

We urge people to email their views to our MP who has already spoken out on this subject: Christine Mccafferty, MP