So, you wait ages for a Fibre broadband connection, then three come along at once…..

As many of you will have seen: we currently have CityFibre, TrueSpeed and Virgin laying lightning-fast fibre cables around Weston, and last week I went to look at the work of one of them (CityFibre as it happened) in Milton where they explained how they install and connect the cables (most of which I understood!).

They also explained why they'd chosen Weston for their £22million investment programme, which chimed with something I've been saying for years: Weston is now a really great place to invest.

We have an increasingly digitally-savvy population, whether it’s high-tech businesses that have set up shop here, or students streaming lectures, or families keeping in touch with friends and relatives, or shopping online, or binge watching Game of Thrones, or improving your ranking in the latest online games.

For a broadband firm, it doesn’t matter why we’re online: if there are enough of us (and in Weston there are) then they’re willing to invest big money to make sure we get better service. Between the three broadband companies, most of Weston and the villages will be covered pretty soon.

But we aren’t there just yet. There’s an awful lot more roads and pavements to dig up and replace first. If you've heard that for some reason your road hasn't been scheduled, it's worth reaching out to the fibre companies to let them know there is demand. They’ll even install in private roads if you can get enough of your neighbours to sign up in advance.

Best of all, having three new firms battling it out with BT for our business means far more choice of suppliers or broadband packages than Weston has had before. It makes us a leading digital location in the South West – and quite right too!

Weston MP John Penrose