A YEAR ago BT indicated that superfast broadband would be available in this part of Malvern by the end of September 2011.

Since then the target has been moved back as each quarter end approaches: as I have written to you before, the availability of superfast broadband recedes continually like a desert mirage. The Malvern Gazette has congratulated itself on getting an agreement between BT and the Conservators on the location of some of the DSLAM boxes to provide the service but that is only a small part of the problem.

In May BT applied for planning permission to install a new box near the road here, on land which has nothing to do with the Conservators, and was told by the end of that month by MHDC that prior approval was not required.

Notwithstanding, BT’s contractors have yet to make any attempt to install the box, and until they do so, superfast broadband in this part of Malvern will remain an illusion.

I have not seen a BT contractor do anything around here since May, when they dug up a piece of grass outside my house to remove a ‘blockage in the duct’.

Since then nothing.

There is a total lack of coherence in the roll-out program in this town, and I would suggest that residents, councillors, MPs and the Gazette get on to BT’s back and tell the company how unacceptable this shambles is.

Heaven help the rest of the UK if this is how BT manages a project in this town.

SIMON PAYTON Malvern