HYPERFAST broadband has been installed in more than 70 properties in and around a South Lakeland village thanks to government funding and a dash of community spirit.

And Heversham parish councillor Iain Richards said another 30 properties were set to be connected in the early part of this year.

Volunteers were finally able to give residents in Heversham and neighbouring Leasgill access to higher speeds thanks to the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme offered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

The funding allowed a local committee to work with Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN), a non-profit organisation aiming to hook rural areas up to fibre optic broadband.

The local committee, which included Cllr Richards, set about chatting to the community to discuss the project.

“The best approach was to go and knock on people’s doors - it didn’t matter how many times we stuck a leaflet through," he said.

“Quite a number of people said ‘I don’t use the internet’ but, equally, we had quite a number of people who had taken the service because it helps the whole village project.

"So it has been a very community-minded thing."

The installation of broadband was very much locally-led.

Workers from B4RN travelled out to teach the local committee how to install the internet.

Consequently, the majority of homes were connected by Cllr Richards or local men John Armer and Barry Cheeseman.

The committee also relied on landowners' permission to install underground piping along their land.

Local contractors stepped in with a plough that, being pulled by a vehicle, pulled the plastic piping for the internet connection along and buried it all in the same movement.