DETERMINED communities have come together to bring their villages into the 21st Century.

Representatives from New Hutton, Old Hutton and Holmescales and Preston Patrick are joining forces to fund the roll-out of superfast broadband - something they claim local business desperately needs.

The Broadband for South Westmorland group need to raise £100,000 and dig 11.5km to bring the high-speed internet from Junction 36 Auction Mart to their own homes.

The current Connecting Cumbria programme, designed to give superfast broadband to vast swathes of the county by the end of 2016, does not cover those three villages, prompting residents to take matters into their own hands.

Arthur Robinson, 67, from Old Hutton, said: "These rural areas are in the five per cent of Cumbria that will not get superfast broadband through BT's Connecting Cumbria. All we get is two megabites a second which is simply not adequate. We decided to do something about it and set up our own group."

Research conducted by Newcastle University shows that, in the last 10 years, the number of new businesses starting-up in areas without superfast broadband is significantly less than areas with that capability.

Similarly, those businesses do not tend to last as long.

RightMove also conducted a survey which showed that house prices in areas that lacked a strong internet connection were up to 20 per cent lower than in other areas - those properties tended to stay on the market for longer as well.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron said: "I want to see the county council supporting community schemes which are ready to be rolled out, such as this in Old Hutton, New Hutton and Preston Patrick . This would help to get things moving whilst we continue to work to bring super-fast broadband to the whole of Cumbria. I am happy to help the county council engage with the Government, to make sure that we can finally make the progress we all want to see."

Broadband for South Westmorland is hosting three meetings, all at 7.30pm, with the hope of getting more people involved in the project.

They will be held at Preston Patrick Memorial Hall on Monday, October 19, Old Hutton Public Hall on Thursday, October 22, and New Hutton Institute on Wednesday, October 28.