A £15.1million boost to North Yorkshire’s digital infrastructure was revealed in the Chancellor’s spring statement.

North Yorkshire County Council and its wholly-owned company NYnet applied for funding from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Local Full Fibre Wave 2 Challenge Fund. The Chancellor announced that the bid had been successful.

The money will be used to connect nearly 400 public sector sites with fibre broadband across 16 towns.

This will provide the basis for the expansion of fibre connectivity which will add to the extensive digital infrastructure in North Yorkshire.

The proposed towns are Skipton, Settle, Harrogate and Knaresborough, Northallerton, Ripon, Richmond, Leyburn, Scarborough, Malton and Norton, Whitby, Easingwold, Thirsk, Selby, Tadcaster, Pickering and Stokesley/Great Ayton.

The leader of NYCC, Cllr Carl Les, said: “We had strong support from all relevant North Yorkshire partners including the MPs, boroughs, districts, health and blue light services.’’

NYCC’s executive member for broadband, Cllr Don Mackenzie, said: “The next step after finalising the agreement with DCMS is to undertake a procurement process to get the best value.”

“This be the focus of activity this year with the deployment of the fibre likely to start next year.

“The success of this bid underlines yet again the progress which NYCC and NYnet have made in creating a very strong digital infrastructure in the county, which is good for our residents and for our businesses.’’