Agenda item

To receive the report of the Assistant Director for Legal and Governance on any Notices of Motion received by him.

Councillors are asked to note that any Notices of Motion must be received by the Assistant Director for Legal and Governance no later than noon on 9 February 2021.

The Council had before it a Notice of Motion set out in the agenda papers standing in the names of Mr A D Kent, Mr J A D O’Donnell, Mr S J Mackay, Mrs L C Hodgson, Mr J H Smith, Mr R J Morris, Mrs K J May and Dr A J Hopkins.

The motion was moved by Mr A D Kent and seconded by Mr J A D O’Donnell who both spoke in favour of it, and Council agreed to deal with it on the day.

In the ensuing debate, the following points were raised:

·         Significant progress had been made over a number of year so that currently 97.3% of residents and 90% of businesses had access to Superfast Broadband. The Council’s foresight had meant that many residents in Worcestershire had been able to work from home during the pandemic. However this should not be the extent of the Council’s ambition and with the support of the Government, the aspiration should be for every household to have a gigabyte connection speed

·         Broadband connectivity impacted on all residents in the county. In particular, the impact on home-schooling, home-teaching, doctors’ appointments, entertainment, the democratic process and the social interaction could not be under-estimated during this pandemic. The strive for improvement meant that the Council was looking forward in terms of how technology could improve people’s lives in the future

·         Although the introduction of Superfast Broadband was welcomed, there was a significant number of families who could not afford it or did not have the necessary equipment and this was impacting on the education of vulnerable children

·         A lot of good work had taken place to provide support to schools and children to access Superfast Broadband as well as for Council members and staff

·         Superfast broadband was vital for families with multiple users within the family home

·         Members of the Council had a leadership role in providing support to local residents through the Superfast Broadband project and members were encouraged to look at gov.uk as a means of providing support for community-led projects

·         The Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Economy commented that he would ensure that a full report was brought to Council in the near future on Superfast Broadband. There were many ways to achieve the target speed of one gigabyte whether through the gap funded projects, the gigabyte vouchers or commercial developments. This Council had targeted support at local businesses as well as residents. £2.7m had been spent on 3k premises over the last 18 months. Grants had been made available to residents and businesses. The Council was one of the top five councils in the country for its performance in this area. Another £1m was committed in the next financial year. There were difficulties but the Council was fully committed to supporting the project working with the Government and commercial partners. He thanked members and officers for their contribution

·         Although there remained a small number of outlying areas where coverage was limited, the overall response to Superfast Broadband from local communities was very positive

·         Superfast Broadband was a vital means of help for people receiving home care support

·         It was important to provide support for farmers, particularly in outlying areas because Superfast Broadband was vital to the ways of working agricultural sector

·         The review needed to address the circumstances where individual properties had connectivity problems despite the overall coverage in their locality being good

·         It was queried whether the Council was lobbying the Government to enable council meetings to continue online

·         The Cabinet Member for Transformation and Commissioning commented that Superfast Broadband project had been particularly vital during the pandemic with the increased requests for members of the community to respond to requests for information online

·         The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills commented that a thousand laptops had been allocated to vulnerable learners and the Government had extended the criteria for the assessment of a vulnerable learner

·         The ability to hold council meetings online had saved time, money and had had a positive impact on the environment.

RESOLVED “Council recognises that Superfast Broadband has become far more than an aspiration and has following recent events become extremely important for the residents of Worcestershire, particularly bearing in mind the needs of those involved in home schooling.

Recently the qualifying speed for the Rural Gigabit Connectivity Programme has been increased to 100Mbps, opening up even more areas that qualify to receive broadband vouchers to support the cost of gigabit-capable connections. Council therefore requests that the Cabinet Member responsible brings a report to Council on progress to date and future goals and aspirations.”