A LETTER has been sent by an East Lothian councillor to a Scottish Government Minister amid concerns over a delay in bringing broadband to some of the county's hard-to-reach areas.

Last October, East Lothian Council and Council and Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) – a Scottish Government programme that supports rural communities across Scotland to establish community broadband networks – agreed to work together to develop a community project.

Objectives of the project were to look at the roll out of superfast broadband to those areas of the county not currently, or planned to be, covered commercially or by the main Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programmes.

Funding of £1.24million was ring-fenced by CBS to bring this project to fruition and work began in January 2016 to identify the areas that would be covered by this project. 

A number of one-to-one, group and community meetings were subsequently held with community representatives. 

Work on establishing a community representative group to take forward this project is in the advanced stages of planning. 

It was anticipated the procurement exercise for the necessary infrastructure to enable superfast broadband would start during autumn 2016.

East Lothian Council, CBS and a representative from the Scottish Government met to discuss the Scottish Government’s commitment to have superfast broadband available to all by 2021 and the programme known as ‘R4100’ (Reaching for 100 per cent), which has been established to deliver this commitment.

It was agreed to put the East Lothian project on hold until there is greater clarity about the delivery route of ‘R4100’, for which more detail from the Scottish Government is expected in the coming months.

Councillor John McMillan, the council’s spokesman for economic development and tourism, sent a letter to Fergus Ewing, cabinet secretary for the rural economy and connectivity, said: “I have been leading a team of colleagues and engaging with communities and business across East Lothian to access reliable and speedy broadband. 

“More recently, colleagues and I have been collaborating with Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) in developing a project that would bring superfast broadband to all of East Lothian’s postcodes not covered by the existing national programmes. 

“Whilst I welcome this development as being potentially good for the whole of Scotland, I am disappointed that this has delayed our East Lothian project. 

“I will provide further update as soon as detail on R4100 and other government and private sector initiatives is known.”

A spokesman for CBS said: “CBS recognises and shares East Lothian Council’s enthusiasm and commitment to get superfast connectivity to the remote and rural areas of East Lothian which aren’t anticipated to benefit from the main DSSB programme, or commercially. 

“Further work by the Scottish Government, through the R4100 programme, will enable CBS and East Lothian Council to focus the community broadband project on the most difficult to reach and challenging areas of East Lothian. 

“CBS appreciates East Lothian Council’s dedication to this project and look forward to further developing a more informed project within East Lothian’s remote and rural areas.”