Burley gets behind broadband bid

That was the claim made by Burley Community Council member Dennis Warwick at the latest meeting of Burley Neighbourhood Forum.

Currently, the village is not covered by the cable network which would allow its schools, library, college facilities at The Grange and companies to benefit from the much quicker form of Internet connection.

Mr Warwick told last Thursday's meeting of around 90 people at Burley Oaks school why they should get behind the campaign to improve the situation.

He said: "Broadband is roughly an attempt to get more information flowing more quickly through computers and other telecommunication devices, but Burley has not got an opportunity to use it at the moment.

"It is available in Ilkley as far as Ben Rhydding, and in Menston to a certain extent."

However, he said he had some good news. "The Government has said that every school in the country has to be linked in to the Internet and to use broadband, and Education Bradford has also said it wants all schools in the district to be linked up."

He added that Burley library should also be linked up, as should the college, which teaches IT, and is similarly hampered.

"I have been saying to Telewest, who are working with Education Bradford to bring broadband to our schools, that there are also lots of local businesses here and people working from home who would benefit too."

Mr Warwick said Telewest would be connecting 40 schools in the district to begin with as part of its 'first phase', and that Burley could be included in the second stage if enough people showed an interest.

He accepted that installing the cables for the connection, however, would involve more digging up of the village's streets.

"There will be some pain before the gain, I'm afraid," he said.

"But I would suggest that we all get in touch with Telewest and say 'bring broadband to Burley!'"

Anyone who wants the village to be broadband linked can contact Scott Wilson at Telewest on 0800 073 0553.