REMOTE communities in Wester Ross should receive superfast broadband as a pay-off for weeks of disruption caused by major cabling works needed to upgrade a top submarine test base.
MP Ian Blackford said local residents should be able to tap into the fibre optic cables to access the latest superfast broadband as a pay-off from the Ministry of Defence for the disturbance to their daily lives.
The British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre (BUTEC) is located in the Inner Sound between the island of Raasay and the Applecross peninsula. Its operators are planning major cabling works to the range terminal control building at Sand, Wester Ross, that will also bring large-scale disruption to the area.
The range is used for noise trials of surface ships and submarines and for testing a variety of weapons, including torpedoes, and sensors.
Mr Blackford is now asking defence technology company QinetiQ to look at providing communities on the Applecross peninsula with superfast broadband capabilities by allowing them to benefit from the fibre optic cabling being laid to the MoD base at Sand, four miles north of the village.
Mr Blackford, MP Ross, Skye and Lochaber, said the work will cause weeks of disruption and limited access along the main route to whole area.
The high mountain pass of Bealach na Ba, the quickest route to Applecross, will suffer major closures for several weeks from April 9 as SSE Telecoms carry out roadworks to lay the fibre optic cables. At the moment Applecross and surrounding areas suffer from some of the lowest broadband speeds in the country or have no internet connection at all, issues to which this project could provide a solution.
Mr Blackford said: “It is nonsensical that this community will gain no connectivity benefit while having to put up with such immense disruption not only to their everyday lives, but will also lose out on the economic benefit brought by tourists who would have been using the NC500 route.
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