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Wireless broadband project wins top market town award in the East Midlands

A community project to bring high-speed, wireless broadband to the town of Uppingham in Rutland has won the East Midlands regional prize in the prestigious Market Town Awards and will now go head-to-head with projects from seven other regions in the National Market Town Awards.

Uppingham is a rural town which lacked high-speed broadband from a major telecoms company. The town partnership, Uppingham First, decided to see if a system of wi-fi aerials covering the whole of the town could provide at least 10Mb broadband.

Working with a local business, Rutland Telecoms Ltd, a pilot project first provided a service to the Beeches Estate on the north side of Uppingham. Based on the success of the pilot, £20,000 funding was secured to provide a further network of miniature aerials by March 2011. A final stage, which will complete provision of wi-fi to the remainder of town, is targeted for completion by March 2012. The project gives two hours a day of free community access to high speed wi-fi, with further access available on payment.

The judges commented that this was an excellent quality, innovative project which had both business and strong social elements.

Uppingham First was winner of the Business and Economy Category and overall regional winners of the East Midlands Market Town Awards. They now go head-to-head with other regional winners to compete for the National Market Town Award at the Action for Market Towns Convention in Chippenham, Wiltshire on October 12.

Other winners were:

Environment and Culture Category – Ashbourne Partnership for A Visible Heritage for Ashbourne, a project which includes a new town map, heritage panels, heritage brochure, children’s fun heritage leaflet and – a first for the town – tour guides for visitors and residents.

Partnership and Strategic Working Category – Melton Town Centre Partnership for a project to use long-term vacant shops in Melton Mowbray as vibrant art galleries. Twenty-one local artists and craftspeople took part in the six-week scheme and a Melton Arts and Crafts Trail was devised. The project sought not only to visually enhance the shops and increase numbers of visitors, but to maximise inward investment potential in these keys unit and help reduce vacant unit rates.

Social and Community Category – Towcester Partnership for The Bus, a double-decker bus providing a base for leisure and training amenities available for young people in surrounding villages. The vehicle also supports the mobile skate park and play schemes currently run in the district and has a full IT training facility on board.

The East Midlands Market Town Awards are part of the National Market Town Awards which each year celebrate the great variety of volunteer-led projects which are helping to regenerate and sustain small towns throughout the country. The Awards are organised by Action for Market Towns, the national organization with over 400 towns in membership which supports the regeneration and vitality of small towns.

Ends

For further press information on the market town awards, please contact: John Pole on 01430 441557. Email: john.pole@towns.org.uk

To contact Uppingham First, ring Ron Simpson on 01572 823465
To contact Ashbourne Partnership, ring Sarah Wolfe on 01335 301145
To contact Melton Town Partnership, ring Shelagh Core on 07919 330849
To contact Towcester Partnership ring Barry Owen on 01327 352220