Alncom will connect 200 of the hardest to reach premises in and around the rural community of Rothbury Northumberland through a £1.4 million project.
Fri, 21/03/2025 - 10:32
Lancaster City Council has activated a 30km fibre network connecting Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham and developed in collaboration with local network specialists The Networking People (TNP).
The council is also working with Cooperative Network Infrastructure (CNI), who have helped to develop similar networks in Blackpool and Tameside, to make the network available to other public sector partners including the police, NHS, education institutions, and Lancashire County Council.
Businesses will also be able to access the network through ISPs who are co-operative members.
Councillor Tim Hamilton-Cox, cabinet member with responsibility for Finance, said: “The city council’s £1.8m capital investment in a high-speed fibre network will reduce the council’s own costs for data transmission and create new opportunities for businesses.
“With the bulk of the budget being spent with TNP and B4RN, businesses which are owned and based in the district, it is Community Wealth-Building realised at some scale.”
The next step is to develop a state-of-the-art hyper-green data centre facility at Salt Ayre Leisure Centre from which waste heat will be transferred to the swimming pool in order to reduce its running costs.
Pictured: Project partners at White Lund Depot, the first Lancaster City Council site to be connected to the full fibre network.
