The campaign for faster broadband access in Norfolk has won the backing of MasterChef finalist Tim Kinnaird.

After reaching the final of the BBC One cooking competition in 2010, Mr Kinnaird now runs his cake baking company Macarons and More in the market town of Watton.

Speaking to the Eastern Daily Press (EDP), the chef explained the internet is becoming an increasingly important means for him to attract new customers, highlighting the importance of a quality business broadband connection.

"My whole business is constructed around Twitter and social networking," he said. "It means I can make a cake, take a picture of it, stick it on the website and then tweet about it - and hopefully then people will want to buy it.

"On Thursday I sent some cakes to Fife and Glasgow, and there's no way I could have done that without the internet."

Mr Kinnaird revealed he is supporting the Say Yes to Better Broadband campaign, jointly run by Norfolk County Council (NCC) and the EDP, in order to improve the quality of internet services in the area. The initiative is more about the benefits that broadband will offer in five years' time than the services it makes available now, he claimed.

NCC secured government funding for its broadband improvement plans in May 2011 and is set to spend the money on rolling out super-fast broadband with minimum speeds of 30Mbps to as much of the county as possible. At the same time, properties that miss out on next-generation access will be hooked up to download rates of at least 2Mbps.

Specifically, the initiative is designed to improve broadband access in communities that are likely to miss out on deployments from telecoms firms.

According to the county council, more than 50,000 homes and businesses across Norfolk are currently stuck with slow or non-existent broadband.

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