MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has called on Exmoor National Park authority to support a new scheme to deliver wireless broadband within its boundaries – despite the fact that it may involve installing as many as 50 masts.
He says the project offers the only realistic chance of bringing local communications up to the same standard as the rest of the country.
Conventional cable-based systems cannot cope with the challenges of delivering high-speed broadband to many of Exmoor’s remote villages, hamlets and farms, leaving hundreds of users struggling with a second-rate service.
But a survey by specialist provider Airband has now resulted in a blueprint which could see all but a tiny number of settlements served through a network of transmitters.
Conservative Mr Liddell-Grainger, whose Bridgwater and West Somerset constituency includes two-thirds of the national park, said he was bracing himself for the ‘almost inevitable’ outcry from conservationists once the proposals were finalised and published.
“But as usual in these cases I expect the majority to come from people who don’t live in the park and who don’t therefore have to cope with the daily frustration and inconvenience of substandard communications,” he said.
“We always hear the strident voices of those who want to preserve Exmoor in aspic. But Exmoor is not some vast rural heritage centre run for the benefit of tourists, it’s a living, working community and it deserves and needs precisely the same access to modern communications as the rest of the country.
“The real danger is that unless we can provide that access we shall see Exmoor-based businesses moving out to where they can get a decent broadband service and taking jobs with them.”
Mr Liddell-Grainger said he accepted the new masts would soon be accepted.
“Close to my constituency home there are two 300-foot high radio transmitters. I can just imagine the consternation there was when they were put up in the 1930s yet now no-one gives them a second glance.
“The Airband masts will, for the most part, have a far less intrusive effect on the Exmoor landscape and I know every effort will be made to minimise their impact.
“But I do expect to see the National Park Authority putting the interests of local people first and not being influenced by the almost inevitable opposition there will be from some quarters.
“This is a unique opportunity for Exmoor and one which must be seized and embraced.”