Jonathan Todd

Jonathan Todd, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Westmorland and Lonsdale, is joining with the Connect sector of the Prospect trade union to campaign for the highest broadband speeds to be brought to the constituency and to rural areas across the UK.

The Labour government will have a delivered national roll-out of broadband at 2 mb/s speed by 2012, with many people having access to faster speeds at this time. Connect, now merged with Prospect, has consistently campaigned for the government to go further and faster but welcomes the commitment to deliver universal broadband.

 Faster broadband services are sometimes known as Next Generation Access (NGA) services and the telecommunications market is presently delivering them to the parts of the country where it is profitable to do so. It is expected that NGA services will reach 90 percent of UK homes by 2017. However, there is concern that rural areas, like Westmorland and Lonsdale, will suffer a ‘digital divide’, as NGA services are delivered by the telecommunications market more quickly to urban areas.

 Mr Todd is delighted to be working to play a part in closing this ‘digital divide’. He said:

“Infrastructure has always powered economic advancement: our canals during the industrial revolution and railways and motorways more recently. High speed broadband is the equivalent for the 21st century. It wouldn’t be acceptable for the M6 to stop at Preston; so, how can it be acceptable for the fastest broadband speeds not to come to Westmorland and Lonsdale?

“I’m delighted to be joining forces with Prospect to work to ensure that this doesn’t happen. To close the ‘digital divide’ would not only be a massive economic boon to Westmorland and Lonsdale, given how much business is done online, it would also strengthen our communities, as an increasing number of community groups organise themselves via emails and websites.”

Leslie Manasseh, deputy general secretary of Prospect said:

“We have been impressed by the vigour of Jonathan’s campaign in Westmorland and Lonsdale and also by the fact that he has picked up on the importance of high speed broadband to his constituency. We are constantly looking at and taking forward new ways to address the ‘digital divide’. It is great to have Jonathan on board with these efforts.”