A broadband campaigner has urged rural towns and villages in the West Midlands to take a lead from an innovative Cumbria community.

The parish of Alston Moor is one of the most sparsely populated areas of England. When BT installed the first generation of broadband it only reached Alston years after many urban areas.

This led to the establishment of Cybermoor, one of the first social enterprise broadband projects in the UK, aiming to build its own superfast broadband network. The co-perative will be laying the cable and the network will be owned by the community rather than a corporate business.

“It is a very interesting concept,” said Glyn Pitchford, elected Business Voice West Midlands business representative on the City Region board.

“We want the Government to do far more than it has to date to develop next generation broadband, but self-help projects are important too.

“There may be no alternative if rural communities are not to end on the wrong side of the digital divide as the Government's plans for future superfast broadband take shape. For example, farmers will have little incentive to redevelop redundant buildings, for offices, retail or leisure use, if suitable broadband isn't available."

Mr Pitchford said, though there were cost issues facing small numbers of people ‘banding’ together, it was worthwhile determined communities investigating what might be possible and exploring the availability of grant aid.

A recent study by regulator Ofcom confirmed that urban consumers receive average download speeds 15 per cent faster than their rural counterparts.

Current plans for superfast broadband from BT and Virgin Media will probably see only half the UK's households covered. Many rural areas are likely to miss out.

Virgin Media's network will only cover half of the homes in the country while BT has so far committed to an investment of £1.5 billion in fibre, which would mean coverage for about 40 per cent of the UK.

The Broadband Stakeholders' Group estimates that to lay a national network delivering fibre to every home would cost £29 billion.