An MP has asked defence contractors QinetiQ to look at providing communities on the Applecross peninsula with super fast broadband capabilities.
Ian Blackford has suggested his constituents should benefit from the fibre optic cabling while it is being laid to the Ministry of Defence base at Sand, four miles north of Applecross.
This work will cause weeks of disruption and limited access along the main route to whole area and given the cost of bringing a cable over the hills into Sand. Mr Blackford claims there would be only a modest increase in cost to connect local communities.
Bealach na Ba, the quickest route to Applecross, will suffer major closures for several weeks from April 9, being shut between 9am – 4pm and 5.30pm -11pm each day as installers, SSE Telecoms carry out roadworks to lay the cables.
While this will bring the latest high-speed connectivity to the base, nearby communities will not gain any of these benefits as there are no plans to provide them with access to the new cabling.
At the moment Applecross and surrounding areas suffer from some of the lowest broadband speeds in the country or have no internet connection at all, issues to which this project could provide a solution.
Mr Blackford said: “It is nonsensical that this community will gain no connectivity benefit while having to put up with such immense disruption not only to their everyday lives, but will also lose out on the economic benefit brought by tourists who would have been using the NC500 route.
“I have written to the CEO’s of both QinetiQ and SSE Telecoms asking them to look at the viability of extending the reach so these communities can at last gain the long term personal and economic benefits from this much-needed internet access.
“They have so far offered £20,000 for local community projects in compensation for the road closure but in my view this is nothing compared to the myriad of benefits which would come with fibre optic cabling.
“Not to include the community in this project is hugely missed opportunity.”
