WORK is steaming ahead to bring fibre broadband to parts of rural Herefordshire, project leaders have said.

The Fastershire project aims to bring superfast fibre broadband to areas of the county which have previously suffered with low broadband speeds.

Under the Fastershire contract, part funded by the by the Rural Broadband Infrastructure Scheme and managed by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs using the Rural Development Programme for England, Airband are providing access to 10 dispersed clusters of premises spread across the county.

The independent internet service provider specialises in bringing high speed broadband to rural and hard-to-reach areas.

Phase four of the project is underway, with work taking place this month in areas including Leintwardine and Brimfield.

Commercial pilot and farmer Andy Jones is one of 164 residents and businesses in and around Tedstone Wafre, who has benefitted from the project.

His wife is an HR consultant for the NHS and often works remotely.

“We were scraping by with incredibly low broadband speeds which made life very challenging," Mr Jones said.

“I lobbied BT for 10 years, but with fibre to the premises we now have 80 Mbps upload and download."

Councillor Shaw, ward member Bromyard Bringsty said, “Faster broadband is so vital in rural areas and this is a wonderful boost for the communities in and around Tedstone Wafre.

“Fastershire’s investment in faster broadband means that more of the harder to reach parts of Herefordshire can benefit from faster broadband and the ability to work from home, run multiple devices will ultimately make the county a better place to live and work.”

Currently over 88% of Herefordshire properties can access a 30mbps or greater service, increasing to 97% under phase 2,

To find out if your property can already access faster broadband or where your property sits in Fastershire’s plans, visit www.fastershire.com