PLANS to provide high-speed broadband Internet coverage for all homes and businesses in West Oxfordshire have taken a big step forward.

Cotswolds Broadband – the Lyneham-based community enterprise that is working in conjunction with West Oxfordshire District Council to secure full broadband coverage – has secured £3.2m of private investment for the project.

This comes on top of the £1.6m investment from the council and a grant of up to £1.6m from Broadband Delivery UK, which is funded by the Government.

The district council stepped in to back the initiative after it was revealed that the Better Broadband for Oxfordshire scheme – set up by the county council in conjunction with BT – would not provide high-speed links for a number of smaller rural communities in West Oxfordshire.

Cotswolds Broadband says it now has the initial capital required in place, with installation work expec-ted to start in March next year.

An invitation to tender for contractors to install equipment is to be issued shortly, defining the communities to be served. This will be done once the results of consultation with other providers of broadband services about their plans for the district have been mapped.

Cotswolds Broadband chief executive Hugo Pickering said: “We’re very pleased to be able to confirm this private investment, which helps us to realise the collective ambitions of the Government, the local authority and local communities.

“We will now move to the next phase of completing the picture of superfast broadband in West Oxfordshire.”

Richard Langridge, the district council’s cabinet member for communities and the local economy, said: “This is excellent news and a significant step towards our goal of achieving as close as possible to 100 per cent broadband coverage in West Oxfordshire. We’re delighted that the confidence that we and the Government have shown in this project is being matched by private investors.”

Mr Pickering began campaigning for better broadband links in 2004, with the initial aim of serving communities along the Evenlode Valley, before BT began work to extend its network of high-speed broadband installations into the district. But even with the investment from the county council-backed scheme, only 95 per cent coverage will be provided via BT’s network.

Other communities in the district, including Standlake and Northmoor, have local broadband networks provided by Gigaclear, founded by Stanton Harcourt businessman Matthew Hare.