North Yorkshire's rural broadband target to be missed, council says

High-quality broadband is to cover 91% of North Yorkshire by June 2017

Some remote communities in North Yorkshire will not get high-speed broadband despite being promised 100% access by 2017, a council has admitted.

Coverage is set to reach 95% by 2019, North Yorkshire County Council said.

Council leader, Carl Les, said: "Trying to deliver any service across 3,000 sq miles is always going to be a challenge."

Now some local community projects are delivering broadband via fibre-optic cable after raising their own funds.

Mr Les said: "We thought [100% coverage] was a realistic expectation but with the benefit of experience we're now realising that it's perhaps that little bit more difficult than we thought at first."

Carl Les said: "Trying to deliver any service across 3,000 sq miles was a challenge"

He said broadband had been delivered to over 90% of locations within "a relatively short time" but he understood those left out would be "very disappointed".

High-quality broadband with a minimum speed of 25Mbps will cover 91% of North Yorkshire premises by June at a cost of about £35 million, the council said.

Funding of £21m has been agreed by the council for the third and final phase to reach 95% of premises.

Mr Peach said about £250,000 had been raised in the area

Simon Peach, led a community scheme in Clapham cum Newby to raise about £250,000 to provide broadband for everyone in the parish.

He said about 20 miles (32km) of fibre optic cable had connected about 100 houses and delivered broadband speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps, but it required volunteers to negotiate land access to complete the project.

He said: "We did the right thing absolutely. It is frustrating because those of us who live in rural properties are last in the queue."