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Lancashire County Council names Digital Champion

Lancashire County Council has named County Councillor Sean Serridge, lead member for corporate services, as its new Champion for Digital Inclusion.

County Councillor Serridge said: “I’m really looking forward to getting started in this role. Access to the internet is becoming as important to modern life as access to gas, electricity or water. Put simply, if you can’t get online you are missing out on a host of opportunities, including jobs and training, cheaper goods and services and access to news and entertainment.

“As one of the key partners in Superfast Lancashire, which will bring high speed broadband to 97% of the county by the end of 2015, we are determined to ensure that as many of our residents as possible benefit from this online revolution.” Bill Murphy BT’s MD for Next Generation Access, said: “Everyone should have the opportunity to reap the benefits of this exciting new digital world.

“The flipside of our increasing reliance on access to the internet – in public, economic and social life – is that the digitally excluded, by default, also become excluded from public services, modern working life and society itself. So it is great that Lancashire County Council is planning to seriously address this challenge through this appointment.”

Superfast Lancashire is a partnership between Lancashire County Council and BT - with additional funding from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme, as well as the European Regional Development Fund, Blackburn with Darwen Council and Blackpool Council - which will bring high-speed broadband to 97 per cent of the county’s homes and businesses by the end of 2015.

As part of his role, Councillor Serridge will develop a Digital Inclusion Delivery Plan aimed at ensuring that as many

Lancashire residents as possible have access to the internet. This is the sixth Champion role to be established, alongside Champions for Older People, Parishes, Young People, Disabled People and Armed Forces Veterans. Each Champion has a sum of £10,000 to use at their discretion to support activities relating to their area of responsibility.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .