RESIDENTS of a remote part of Croft can celebrate the end of slow and inconsistent internet.

Culcheth and Croft now has ‘Ultrafast’ broadband in their villages, assisted by the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

Back in March, residents were asked to sign up to the scheme, which provided £1,500 per household towards the installation of the local fibre cabling and infrastructure needed to get better broadband.

‘Ultrafast’ is the name given to broadband with speeds up to 1000 megabits/sec – or ‘gigabit’ – produced by bringing optical fibre to the premises (FTTP) as opposed to your local distribution cabinet (FTTC).

Up to now, only the latter has been available locally, which meant much slower broadband speeds.

It wasn’t clear though exactly which parts of the area would benefit, and how far the fibre infrastructure would go.

So a group of Kenyon residents got together to try and ensure that their houses would be served.

They contacted Freedom Fibre, a new Manchester company working with TalkTalk, to put pressure on them to install the cabling up Kenyon Lane and Main Lane.

Towards the end of March they got the great news that Freedom Fibre had agreed to extend the coverage to their houses.

At the end of July this bore fruit with the installation by Freedom Fibre of the fibre cabling on the telegraph poles, some newly installed, up Kenyon Lane.

One of the group of Kenyon residents, Norman Partington, is a member of Croft Parish Council.

Norman said “With more residents working from home post-Covid, Ultrafast broadband will be a huge benefit."

Fellow councillor Gary Farnsworth added: “It’s great news that Croft is getting full fibre connectivity, as we have suffered long enough with a slow and inconsistent internet service”.

Residents will be able to obtain the new service shortly through TalkTalk, BT, or other providers. The final link in the chain will then be made, with the fibre cable being connected to your house.