Demand for superfast broadband in outlying villages of the Worth Valley has been highlighted at a full meeting of Bradford Council.

And ward councillors are calling for everything to be done for the service to be made available in the area and throughout the district.

Councillor Russell Brown said, “I was delighted that Ken Eastwood, of the FibreValley community organisation which campaigns for access to high-speed broadband in Crossroads, Haworth, Oakworth, Oldfield, Oxenhope and Stanbury, decided to address the recent meeting of the full council, along with a student who outlined the effect that the absence of broadband was having on his education.”

There is currently a programme called Superfast West Yorkshire, which has received over £11m of funding to provide broadband to rural areas, but it is only committed to covering 97 per cent of West Yorkshire and this will in some areas take up until autumn 2015.

Ken Eastwood said: “FibreValley is working hard to ensure that the evidence of demand that Superfast are requiring will be available. I felt it necessary to ask what the Council will do to assist us.

“While the Leader of the Council assured us that the Council is committed to supporting broadband for the whole district and was a partner in Superfast West Yorkshire, he then suggested that communities should group together to demonstrate that the service is required and that residents are prepared to pay for it.”

Councillor Glen Miller, Leader of the Council’s Conservative Group, said: “I shall be calling on the Council to provide proper details of a proper council campaign to assist communities to secure the service being installed by Superfast West Yorkshire. Simply saying, ‘we have thrown a few quid in, so we have done our bit’ is not enough”.