THE Forest of Dean has been chosen to be part of an ambitious £5m pilot scheme to deliver super-fast broad­band communications to remote rural homes and businesses.

The pilot is a collaboration between Herefordshire Council,?Tewkes­bury and the Dean. It means part of the Dean – probably those areas closest to Hereford, such as Lydbrook and Drybrook – will be part of a trial of 'next generation' high speed broadband (around 20mb or more). It is one of only four successful pilot bids, the others being the Scottish Highlands and Islands and parts of Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Cllr Brian Robinson said: "It seemed sensible to bid as a collective with Herefordshire and Tewkes­bury. What we don't know at the moment is how much of the £5m will come to the Forest, what areas it will cover and what will be the technology for bringing it forward, but this will come soon and we have set up a task force to make sure the Forest does get fast broadband. The technology could be wireless or fibre optics, although putting fibre optics into every household would probably be prohibitive. There is also the Avanti satellite which we understand may be able to provide comprehensive fast broadband from early next year.

"What we do know is that we want our community to be fully enabled with broadband. It is a critical partof enabling our future development as a community and without it we will have difficulty attracting businesses to our area. It is critical."

The collaborative bid across three areas which was accepted by Broadband Delivery UK was coordinated by Gloucestershire First.

David Owen, First's chief executive, stressed only some areas of the Forest will benefit initially, but that nevertheless the pilot will create new opportunities for people and businesses.

"Fast broadband speeds allow businesses to compete in the global web market place. Super-fast broadband is a vital factor in our work to encourage inward investors to take rural relocation seriously and bring quality jobs to Gloucestershire."