Belinda Fawcett (Cornerstone’s Director of Property and Estates and General Counsel), Jonathan Harris from Connecting Cumbria and local MP Simon Fell visited Kirkby-in-Furness on the 1st of December with a team of acquisition and planning specialists to discuss how to develop the connectivity infrastructure needed to improve network coverage in the Lake District as part of the UK’s Shared Rural Network (SRN) Project.
The SRN Project will deliver reliable mobile broadband to 95% of the UK, addressing the digital divide by improving 4G coverage in the areas that need it most https://srn.org.uk/about/. We are proud to be delivering infrastructure for the SRN project.
The group met with local stakeholders and community members to share and gather information on how to develop connectivity infrastructure in the National Park, and to hear how a lack of coverage affects local residents, visitors and business owners.
Belinda Fawcett highlighted:
As part of the UK Government’s multi-million-pound Shared Rural Network project, we continue to develop our network of base stations to ensure the infrastructure needed by the mobile operators, to improve connectivity in rural areas, is available. Listening to the communities around these potential developments is vital and allows us to understand their concerns and address these in the initial stages of our proposals.
The Cornerstone team were joined by Simon Fell MP who added:
I was very glad to welcome this group to rural Furness to host a discussion on the importance of rolling out better mobile coverage to some of our most rural communities.
Hosting this forum in Grizebeck was essential – constituents only a stone’s throw away know the challenges that poor connectivity can bring first hand: inability to access services like banking online, a risk to life in winter months as climbers and walkers get stranded, and young people leaving the community, to name just a few.
As the Government’s Rural Connectivity Champion, I was delighted to bring local voices to this discussion, and will take back the discussion to the Secretary of State to unlock roll-out and get communities across the UK, like this one in Furness, better connected.
