COUNCILLORS have heralded as “good news” a move by Cornwall Council to use over £1-million of funding to ensure the “big problem” of poor mobile coverage across the Duchy is improved.

The lack of connectivity in parts of Cornwall during and following Storm Goretti at the start of the year has been cited as a reason why the work is vital.

The council’s cabinet signed off the Digital Connectivity Investment Programme at its meeting today. The authority will work with telecoms providers to improve mobile and broadband connectivity across Cornwall as part of a scheme called Full Signal Cornwall.

An independent survey was recently carried out of mobile network coverage and performance across 70 per cent of Cornwall’s road network using monitoring equipment installed on food waste collection ‘bin’ lorries. In terms of overall coverage, 17.3 per cent of the surveyed road network did not have signal coverage with a basic level of performance from at least one mobile network operator. When considering a ‘good’ performance threshold the extent of ‘not-spots’ grew to 31 per cent.

The council says this is in stark contrast to the coverage data published by Ofcom, which indicates 99.3 per cent 4G coverage across Cornwall.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Tim Dwelly, cabinet member for economic regeneration and investment, said: “The big thing we learned in this survey is we are nowhere near the level of quality of coverage in Cornwall that Ofcom figures would suggest. We have a big, big problem, probably worse than quite a few areas. That’s something I’m keen to push for change on.

“The amount of money available for the project is £1.41-million, none of which has come from Cornwall Council and taxpayers.”

The council will continue with its Streetwave survey which allows residents to find out which provider is giving the best service for their property or place of work.

The authority will also work with town and parish councils, and local communities, to lobby for improvements. There will also be two pilot schemes with physical infrastructure changes – on a high street and village, to be decided – to look for the worst ‘notspots’ and bring in the equipment to spread a high quality signal through those areas.

Storm resilience will also be a major factor after the effects of Storm Goretti demonstrated how many areas were cut off.

Cllr Dan Rogerson, the member for transport, said if the council wasn’t carrying out the work, Cornwall would be missing out on the level of connectivity it should be getting. Member for localism Cllr Sarah Preece added that the programme was a potential revenue income stream for the council as it could use its land for telecoms infrastructure. The project would also provide inward investment from the telecoms industry.

“Making sure residents have access to reliable and affordable digital connectivity through improved access to digital services is critical,” she added. “Many of my parishes [in her council division] – I have eight – have no signal at all at any time of year let alone when there’s a storm. This initiative will make a massive difference.”

Mebyon Kernow councillor Loveday Jenkin commented: “The issue in Storm Goretti, in particular, was that mobile masts did not have any back-up energy generation, so all the masts failed as well. I think if there are discussions with the mobile providers, can we ask that they put in back-up arrangements?”

A number of councillors, who are not part of the cabinet, commented that it was a “good news story”. Members congratulated council officer Lindsay Knuckey for ensuring the funding was clawed back to improve mobile coverage in Cornwall.