A RESIDENT has spoken out against the lack of high speed broadband for more than 250 houses in the Ribble Valley.

The Ribble Meadows housing development in Clitheroe consists of 260 houses and a resident has claimed that none of them have access to high-speed fibre broadband.

Clitheroe resident Darren Hargreaves, Irwell Mews, Ribble Meadows said: “In this day and age it’s ludicrous to not have high speed broadband.

“Having to spend between £200,000 and £300,000 for a house and then to not have a good broadband connection is shocking.

“Three years ago my wife and I bought a house on a new development in Clitheroe called Ribble Meadows.

“We have personally had our new build finished in January 2016, yet we are still on two meg broadband through a BT copper line.

“We haven’t been told when fibre will be installed or explained why when all the builders and road workers have moved off the development why it needs to all be rigged up again to retro fit fibre.

“I have had to install a satellite dish which cost £150 just to get access broadband.

“That’s even before paying for a monthly broadband subscription which is costing us £30 a month for the and is only 10 megs.”

A spokesman for BT said: “As Ribble Meadows is a relatively new development, it was not included in earlier commercial rollout plans for fibre broadband or government funded schemes in the Clitheroe area.

“Unfortunately, it was also too early to be part of a new initiative, in which Openreach provides ultrafast fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband to all new developments of at least 30 premises.

“However we have been working with several housing developments in the North West to provide fibre broadband through our Community Fibre Partnerships scheme where the costs of installing the fibre are covered between Openreach and the community.

“This could be a good option for the resident of Ribble Meadows.

“To find out more they should contact our team though our website www.communityfibre.bt.com.”