NORTH Petherton and Spaxton have been included in a £94million project to get Superfast Broadband.

Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) will have made high-speed fibre optic broadband available to 70,000 homes and businesses by the end of July – including North Petherton and Spaxton.

Cllr David Jeanes, twe chairman of Spaxton Parish Council, welcomed the news.

He said: “At the moment it’s very slow and it will be great to have high-speed internet.

“We’ve been waiting to get it for a while and we now have broadband in the village hall, which means many groups that use the hall will soon benefit from a high-speed connection.”

Mayor of North Petherton, Cllr Bill Revans, said: “This is great news for residents in North Petherton, North Newton, Wilstock and Stockmoor.

“Faster download speeds and more reliable connections will mean improved opportunities for shopping online, education, leisure and social networking.

“This has the potential to improve lifestyles, create jobs and give businesses more flexibility.”

The Connecting Devon and Somerset programme aims to make superfast broadband speeds of 24Mbps and above available to around 90% of homes and businesses by the end of 2016.

Cllr David Hall, deputy leader of Somerset County Council, said the council is delighted with the progress, but that the severe flooding is posing challenges for the engineering teams who are rolling out the new network.

He said: “Connecting Devon and Somerset is working very effectively to deal with these and ensure the roll-out continues at a fast pace. For example, where the flooding is particularly serious we will switch some work to less severely affected areas until the waters subside.”

Laurent Boon, BT’s programme manager for Connecting Devon and Somerset, added: “Despite the difficult weather, the partnership has achieved strong progress.”