What the Industry thinks

Rory Sherwood-Parking, Virgin Media:

''Newcastle City Council have been a fantastic partner of Virgin Media as we look to continue our rollout of gigabit-ready broadband across the City. The City Council have taken an enlightened and innovative approach to reduce a number of barriers, from putting in place pragmatic and practical solutions to meet Streetworks challenges to working together to explore new streamlined processes governing wayleave requests and adoption records. Their willingness to collaborate is a great example of how Local Authorities can work with commercial operators to maximise rollout. One example of this has been the way the Council have led on behalf of other North East authorities in looking at planning policy changes which would ensure that gigabit-ready broadband, and choice for consumers, is built into the planning system at a local level to benefit residents and businesses moving into new development sites. We would like to thank the City Council for their collaborative approach on barrier removal and look forward to continuing to work with them.''

Patrick Haynes, CityFibre:

''In many ways Newcastle City Council exceeded the challenging requirements and expectations of barrier busting, their drive to be the most attractive place to innovate and deploy in the United Kingdom is very much a reality. CityFibre invests in cities & towns across the country - Newcastle stood out with its proactive approach to partnership and ambition for change. They understand the value and importance of connectivity to the city. By securing political sponsorship at the highest level, we are working with them to generate ‘Newcastle again’ so that the benefits of connectivity can be felt wider across the region.''