AN Overton businessman is calling for a Government strategy that will make broadband available in rural areas.

Steve Robarts, principal of sjr Associates and a member of the Overton business Association, has been attempting to secure broadband access for the village for some time. He is backed by MP Sir George Young who has written to the Department for Trade and Industry after Prime Minister Tony Blair announced every school and medical centre in the country will be on broadband by 2006.

Mr Robarts said: "Making it available to schools and surgeries is a fine and dandy arrangement but you've got to deliver. There needs to be a co-ordinated broadband effort from all parts. We are desperately crying out for a government strategy to look at delivering broadband in rural areas."

Overton Business Association chairman Peter Baker, says BT 'keeps moving the goalposts' on the numbers needed to register for broadband - changing the 'trigger level' from 20 people originally to 250 at present.

BT spokesman Jason Mann said: "We have spent a lot of time working out what the cost would be and we have stuck to these trigger levels, but we haven't been able to set a trigger level for every exchange.

"It costs between £250,000 and £500,000 per exchange to roll out broadband. We have assessed the amount of traffic going through each exchange and where there is a high demand we have put in broadband.

"We are determined to make it as widely available as we possibly can so long as it is a commercially viable proposition - there is a substantial investment involved here."