Contact/Cyswllt:  Sian Cliff
02920 898342 / sian.cliff@wales.gov.uk

Montgomeryshire AM Mick Bates today slammed the First Minister during question time over his continued neglect for rural Wales and his lack of recognition on the urgent need for a strong broadband infrastructure to support rural areas.

The First Minister quoted a statistic of over 99% of people having access to broadband in Wales but this is far lower in rural areas. Reports show that only 77% of people in Powys, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire have access to broadband.

Commenting Mick Bates stated:

“The First Minister has shown a clear lack of understanding over the broadband crisis which is threatening the future economic stability of our businesses in rural Wales.

“Our local traders are struggling to survive because they cannot compete in the global or even UK market without the benefit of broadband. Yet the First Minister has failed to recognise their plight and has shown no appreciation of the catastrophic economic impact that this lack of broadband may have on our rural businesses.

“I am deeply concerned that the Labour-Plaid Government is failing the people of Montgomeryshire and other parts of rural Wales, who are being left behind the rest of Wales as the bandwidths increase elsewhere and we haven’t even reached the minimum 512kbs in many areas!

“It is disgraceful that at time when rural Wales is facing so many challenges to its economic stability the Labour-Plaid coalition continues to neglect the needs of rural businesses and the leisure industry in this way.

“The Labour-Plaid Government must take swift action now and invest in the infrastructure necessary to deliver a high bandwidth affordable data communications infrastructure to all businesses and homes in Mid Wales.”



End / Diwedd

NOTES:

The Welsh Consumer Council report ‘Consumers and ICT in Wales’ highlights that people in Mid and West Wales are least likely to have a broadband connection (77%) followed by people living in the Valleys (87%).