Cabinet considered a report by the Head of Economic Growth and Prosperity on the various options available to Shropshire Council to provide fibre broadband to those areas that were currently not projected to get access to superfast broadband speeds (24Mbps+) as part of the Connecting Shropshire programme.

(a)  That approval be given to the commencement of the Phase 2 procurement process using the BDUK Framework, to extend the coverage of fibre broadband in the Shropshire Council area (Option 3 set out in the report).

(b)  That authority be delegated to the Head of Economic Growth and Prosperity (Programme Executive), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Business Growth, ip&e, Culture and Commissioning (North) to define the value for money criteria to be used in evaluating the tender submission.