Around 380 households and businesses in the parish of Cholmondeley now have access to high-speed fibre broadband, thanks to Connecting Cheshire.

Eddisbury MP, Antoinette Sandbac, joined residents and local Wrenbury councillor Stan Davies, to celebrate the latest fibre cabinet switch-on in Bickerton Road.

Four new roadside fibre cabinets have been installed by Openreach, the business responsible for the majority of the UK’s local phone and broadband network, in the area in total by Connecting Cheshire, a partnership between Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East, Halton and Warrington Borough Councils, BT and central Government with additional funding from the European Regional Development Fund.

Connecting Cheshire is managed by Cheshire East Council’s ‘arms-length’ Skills and Growth Company.

Ms Sandbach said: “Residents in rural areas often feel that they are missing out on superfast so it is great to see this expansion of superfast in Cholmondeley. I look forward to BT reaching other rural areas in the constituency.”

Cllr George Hayes, chairman of the Skills and Growth Company, said: “I am delighted to see more rural areas being reached by the Connecting Cheshire project, to date we have reached over 96,000 premises with fibre; bringing superfast speeds to around 94 per cent of homes and businesses.”

Matthew Hemmings, Openreach’s regional director for the North, said: “High speed fibre broadband helps to ensure that businesses thrive and don’t just survive, and it helps to keep communities connected. Whatever you do online you can do it better with fibre broadband.

“Across Cheshire, Openreach has made fibre available to tens of thousands of local households and businesses through its own commercial programme and its investment in Connecting Cheshire.

“People and businesses in Cheshire East are increasingly taking the great opportunities that this transforming technology offers and our engineers have worked closely with the local authority to make those opportunities as widely available as possible.”

To check availability in your area you can visit the Connecting Cheshire website and enter a postcode or a telephone number - www.connectingcheshire.org.uk/check-availability Connection to fibre broadband does not happen automatically and people must contact their service provider – there are more than 140 of them offering fibre broadband services across the UK – to place an order.