A DEAL to bring superfast broadband to 55,000 properties across Worcestershire is facing criticism today - after it emerged taxpayers' cash is being used to entice people to use it.

Worcestershire County Council has already sunk £8.5 million towards a £20 million project with BT to bring internet speeds into a new era.

It has now emerged that bosses at County Hall have earmarked another £272,000 as part of a package to both promote take-up of the service and manage it effectively.

Your Worcester News can reveal how the money includes £2,500 on printing off 5,000 A5 leaflets to advertise the scheme and other "demand stimulation" tactics, as well as staffing costs.

Some of that money was also spent on a piece of work to ensure faster broadband coverage can be provided for very rural areas like Little Witley, parts of Malvern and villages near Redditch, while a small amount is for other contingency costs.

The extra spending has enraged County Hall's Labour group, which says the council should have pushed BT to fund all of it.

Councillor Peter McDonald, Labour group leader, said: "So far the council has contributed £8.5 million to the total cost of £20 million to provide superfast broadband to what is a minority of residents in the county.

"Not satisfied with spending £8.5 million for a private company to expand it has spent £272,500 promoting a private company through advertising and giving support to the programme.

"The amount spent on advertising and supporting the product of a private company is eye watering.

"While vital services are being cutback and in some cases gone forever this council is putting the interests of a private company before vital services."

The attack has been rejected by the Conservative leadership, which says the deal is a good one for taxpayers.

Under the contract, central Government has stumped up around £3.35 million and the remaining £8.9 million is from BT, which is also funding its own promotion strategy.

Worcestershire's superfast broadband scheme is widely thought of as one of the very best in the UK, as the target takes in 95 per cent of business premises as well as residential ones – an aim over and above the rest of the nation.

Within Whitehall it has repeatedly been brought up as an example for other counties to follow, much like the Cornwall version of ‘superfast’.

There are eight phases to the work in total, which is on track to be complete by June 2016.

Superfast speeds will allow people to watch films, download multiple files and make the most of the internet instantly.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, deputy leader and cabinet for economy, skills and infrastructure has called the criticism from Cllr McDonald "misleading".

He said: "It is misleading to suggest we have spent £272,500 promoting BT as a provider for superfast broadband and that we are spending £8.5m for a private company to 'expand'. 

"This is an excellent example of the public and private sector investing and working together to enable a next generation broadband network across Worcestershire and to drive economic growth.

"The figure of £272,500 is the programme budget used to resource the programme and stakeholder management (it forms part of the revenue budget).

"A small amount of this is allocated to promoting superfast broadband across Worcestershire, highlighting how residents and businesses can sign up to fibre broadband and stimulating their demand.

"We do not promote individual internet service providers, it is up to residents and businesses to decide who is right for them from nearly 150 different providers."