RESIDENTS of a Forest village are working in partnership with local councils and a leading network builder to bring ultrafast broadband to their homes and businesses at long last.

Locals behind the Kempley Community Scheme have campaigned for 10 years to improve broadband speeds for every property in the parish, and deliver on an ambition to become the "best internet connected remote village in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire".

Now, extensive efforts to prove their latest scheme commercially viable are finally paying off, with network builder Fibre Heroes having begun work on a £600,000 project.

Working together with Fastershire - the partnership between Herefordshire and Gloucestershire county councils to deliver full fibre broadband across the two counties - the community group has "literally walked the streets day and night" to encourage enough property owners to sign up to a voucher scheme, with a target of 80 per cent of the area set, before the work could even be tendered.

The current scheme is the third the community group has negotiated, and Fibre Heroes was the only company to tender, which programme leader and Kempley Parish Council Chair Martin Brocklehurst says shows "how close to the commercial margins" the scheme is.

The project is expected to be completed by March next year and will also benefit the nearby parishes of Yatton, Upton Bishop, Much Marcle, and Dymock.

In all, the project covers an area of 21 square kilometres in isolated rural areas.

Martin said: “We are delighted that by working with Fastershire and FullFibre we are able to complete the roll out of full fibre broadband to the Kempley Parish.

“It has been a long journey that started in 2013 when our community set out to achieve substantial investment in our communication infrastructure.

“This will be our third and largest community-based scheme, and will deliver our vision to be one of the best internet connected villages in Gloucestershire.

“This time we have also been able to work with outlying communities in the parishes of Upton Bishop, Yatton, Much Marcle, and Dymock to really show that when communities work together so much can be achieved.

“Full fibre broadband is critical to our future as more and more services go online. It means we are able to support nearly 40 businesses in our area, including local farms as they use new automated management and reporting systems and attract young entrepreneurs to live and work in our beautiful community, at the heart of the Golden Triangle”.

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council added: “One of our key levelling up priorities for Gloucestershire is tackling the digital exclusion that rural communities often suffer from.

“The Fastershire Community Grant Scheme is directly addressing this by giving communities access to high-speed broadband, transforming their ability to utilise digital opportunities such as work, education and making social connections.”