East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) is urging residents and businesses to go online and give their views on the current quality of broadband services across the county.

The local authority launched surveys on Wednesday (February 1st 2012) aimed at consumers and commercial broadband users, in a bid to discover levels of demand for access to faster connections. The polls will remain live on the East Riding Broadband website until this autumn.

To deliver next-generation speeds to parts of the East Riding that are currently stuck with slow or non-existent broadband, the council needs to provide evidence on how existing internet connections are working to illustrate whether or not there is a genuine need for faster and more reliable access.

More than £8.5 million of government funding has been committed to improving broadband services in Hull, east Yorkshire, North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire, although the Department for Culture, Media and Sport stressed this amount is subject to revision once further data becomes available.

This money will be spent on achieving the Conservative-led coalition's target of delivering super-fast broadband to nine in ten properties across the country by 2015, with minimum speeds of 2Mbps for the remaining 10 per cent of homes and businesses.

Jonathan Owen, deputy leader and portfolio holder for performance, improvement and partnerships at ERYC, said the deployment of fast broadband throughout the county is "vital" to ensure the area is not left behind the rest of the UK as speeds continue to rise.

"The East Riding Local Broadband Plan will identify localities that need investment for both basic reliable broadband ... and provision of super-fast broadband as demand for this service increases," he explained.

"I urge residents and businesses in the East Riding to visit the website and register their interest as completing the survey will help develop the project and secure funding."

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