LONGBOROUGH residents say they are feeling abandoned over broadband provision following the launch of the Fastershire initiative.

Resident Jan Elliott said she is paying £50 per month for a service she isn't getting. She signed up for Fastershire and then was told she couldn't be connected. She then was told she could not revert to the copper wire system and has had no broadband for 10 weeks.

"It has been ridiculous. BT doesn't seem to know what it is doing and certainly doesn't communicate between departments. Engineers said I have been connected to Fastershire from the cabinet but nothing happened. Then I was told I had been connected through an old telephone number to the property which took a while to sort out. Then they told me I could not be connected because they didn't have the capacity to put me on from the exchange which is not what the engineers told me.

"I have been dealing with the Lincoln office who have been as helpful as they can but even they can't seem to get answers. They are now providing me with a free dongle so I can get broadband but that doesn't stop the fact I am paying for a service I am not getting."

Resident Tim Gardner said the fibre-optic broadband provision was designed to bring prosperity to rural areas and revitalise small communities but the experience of Longborough is that it has created more headache and heartache than enhancement and that it cannot succeed without radical action.

"A £12 million subsidy was pumped into the project which covers Herefordshire and Gloucestershire and has now been extended to cover 6,495 more homes in the county. A fibre optic cabinet was installed in the middle of last summer and several people in the village had signed up for the service which has cost them personally through delays, missed appointments and many hours of work lost.

"I have kept the old broadband service which is very slow but some don't even have that. One of the problems is that you struggle to speak to anyone at BT or Openreach. You never speak to the same person twice."

Mr Gardener added that there was no pattern of connection in the village. Some residents at one side of the road had connection while those opposite didn't. Even some neighbouring properties had no connection while neighbours did.

A spokesman for Fastershire partnership said: "As part of the Fastershire roll-out – which is being spearheaded in this part of the county by Gloucestershire County Council and BT – more than 110 homes and businesses in Longborough already have access to faster fibre broadband.

Around 50 local premises are currently unable to benefit from the fibre upgrade because they are too far from the fibre road-side cabinet that connects properties to the new network.

Fastershire will continue to seek alternative ways to enable homes and businesses not already covered by the roll-out to access faster broadband."

A spokesperson for Gloucestershire County Council added: “As part of the Fastershire rollout, more than 110 homes and businesses in Longborough have access to faster broadband. However, we are aware of issues being experienced by some residents due to their distance from the new fibre cabinet. We are working with BT to explore possible solutions for this cabinet and are awaiting their response. In addition we have recently awarded a contract to Gigaclear to further extend faster broadband coverage in the Cotswolds and expect further properties in Longborough to benefit from this rollout. Details of premises being covered under this phase will be published on www.fastershire.com by the end of the month, with work starting in September.”