SUPERFAST broadband is set to arrive in four East Lancashire communities for the first time within the next two months, Lancashire County Council and BT has announced.

Between now and the end of September, Superfast Lancashire’s £130million programme is expected to make the technology available to almost 40,000 more homes and businesses across Lancashire.

The latest communities to benefit include Turton, Padiham, Brinscall and some parts of Burnley while a further two communities where work started earlier, Coppull and Whalley, are mostly completed already.

The news came as the Government announced more than a million UK homes and businesses now have access to superfast broadband as a result of the Broadband Delivery UK rollout.

The programme will extend superfast broadband to 95 per cent of the UK by 2017.

Openreach - BT’s local network business - will lay the fibre optic cables and put in new roadside cabinets in the coming weeks so people and businesses can benefit from the technology.

Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey said: “I congratulate Superfast Lancashire on their excellent progress to date and am delighted to hear that more communities are set to go superfast by September, joining the more than 64,000 homes and businesses in Lancashire who are already benefiting from the Government’s UK rollout.”

County Councillor Sean Serridge, champion for digital inclusion at Lancashire County Council, said: “This is a great achievement and shows we are well on the way to achieving our goal of providing 97 per cent of the county with high-speed broadband by the end of next year.

“Faster fibre broadband is hugely important for the county both economically and socially.

“There can be few areas of modern life which are not touched in some way by broadband connectivity, whether it is supporting how we work, how we learn, how we communicate with friends and family, or how we entertain ourselves.”