KENDAL has fallen behind in the race to get superfast broadband.

Towns across South Lakeland are battling it out to secure futuristic broadband – with Ulverston and Barrow now taking the lead in the final month of the competition.

Three weeks ago Kendal had the most votes in the county but has now dropped out of the top 15.

Telecommunication giant BT is wiring areas around Britain based on demand – pledging that the top five locations receiving the most votes will be upgraded to superfast fibre optic broadband by 2012.

The winning town in Cumbria stands a chance of being one of them.

Residents and businesses in the county have been filling in a questionnaire highlighting local demand with Barrow now in fourth place in the country and top in Cumbria while Ulverston, Sedbergh and Arnside are all in the top ten in the county.

Currently the average broadband speed using a copper network is eight Mbps but the new fibre optic network will introduce speeds on average of 40 Mbps.

Gavin Cunnings, director of Kendal-based SCK Web Works Ltd, said superfast broadband would dramatically help his web design company.

He said: “Certainly with uploading, it’s quite slow at the moment.

"We upload a lot and so it would increase our productivity.

“From that point of view downloading could always do with being a bit faster.

"It would have a big impact on our work if broadband was faster.”

Mike Blackburn, BT’s North West regional director, said: “This data will help determine where fibre broad-band will be deployed over the next few years so it’s vital for the region that residents take the time to complete this survey.

“The BT roll-out of superfast broadband is one of the most ambitious fibre programmes in the world not reliant on public sector support.

"But support will be needed for exchanges in the final third of the UK where deploying fibre is commercially non-viable.”

BT has said that for areas that do not make the top five, the company is still prepared to work with places that have had a large enough vote.

Cumbria is unique in that it has been selected by cen-tral government as one of four areas to benefit from investment in its broadband infrastructure, with funding of up to £5m.

BT said it hoped to be a part of the development.

To join in the ‘race’ – which runs until December 31, visit