For immediate release:

MSP CONDEMNS NEWTON FARM BROADBAND PROVISION

Rutherglen MSP, Clare Haughey, has condemned house builders in the Newton Farm area of Cambuslang for not providing superfast broadband in new build developments.

The SNP MSP has been campaigning on the issue of poor broadband provision in Newton Farm since her election, and has welcomed recent assurances from Openreach that one fibre cabinet in the area will be upgraded by the end of April this year, with another due to be upgraded within 12 months.

After recent correspondence to Openreach, the company contacted the Rutherglen MSP to advise that fibre cabinet 36, which services streets such as Honeysuckle Crescent, Honeydew Drive, Red Deer Road, Hay Crescent and Meadow Drive, will be upgraded to increase its capacity.

Following further representations by the Ms Haughey, Openreach confirmed that a second cabinet, number 48, which serves new build properties in Bramble Wynd, Poppy Gardens, Foxglove Grove, Daisy Drive and Clover Crescent, will be upgraded within the next 12 months.

Commenting, Clare said:

“When people move into new homes they expect the infrastructure for superfast broadband to be available, just as they would water, gas and electricity. It is appalling that house builders have not ensured that houses built in this area in the past two years do not appear to have had superfast broadband.”

“I have contacted by dozens of residents whose internet had been so slow that they were unable to work from home, whilst others’ couldn’t even stream online TV.”

“The upgrade to cabinet 36 has been a long time coming. The confirmation from Openreach that they are about to commence agreements with developers in relation to cabinet 48 is also welcome, but it would have been preferable to have had such agreements in place before residents started moving in to their new homes.”

Residents in the cabinet 36 area are advised to monitor the Openreach website as, when the cabinet is ready to accept orders again, it will be published there first. Progress on the cabinet 48 upgrade can also be viewed on that website.

Pledging to continue monitoring the situation for all Newton Farm residents Ms Haughey said:

“I will continue to liaise with housing developers, and service providers to ensure they are doing all they can to provide customers with the internet speeds they require, not just for existing houses, but also for new builds that are currently under construction, or planned.”

ENDS

Date published: 19th March 2018