Digital investment of £2.5m for St Helens town centre

Article date: 1st March 2024

St Helens Borough Council's Cabinet approved the start of work to find a delivery partner to deliver the £2.5 million project that will deliver high quality fibre connections to support businesses across St Helens town centre.

The focus of the Town Deal project is to increase internet speeds through gigabit capable connections, which is higher than superfast broadband, in the town centre. While across the rest of the borough average gigabit capacity is in the region of 90 per cent, in St Helens town centre this falls to 37 per cent, so this project will address the difference and support businesses to make the most of the best internet connections.

The project will also support the council's Digital Strategy which sets out the role that digital inclusivity plays in the delivery of the St Helens Together Borough Strategy and plays into a number of key priorities not just in supporting business but building inclusive growth.

Councillor Richard McCauley, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Planning, said: "This Town Deal project is a key part of our transformational work to develop St Helens town centre and will prove a real boost to businesses, residents and visitors and will help enable better support for things like 5G connectivity in the borough in the future. This scheme will also provide digital infrastructure pulling together the other Town Deal project sites across St Helens town centre."

Councillor Martin Bond, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, said: "We set out a bold roadmap to support greater digital connectivity as a way to enable inclusive growth so that our businesses and residents will benefit from fast reliable internet. This project is one of the ways we have committed to that roadmap and means that it will break down the barriers of digital isolation some may feel with greater access to high quality online connectivity. It will also unlock the opportunities to further advance our borough's digital offer and make us one of the most digitally connected towns in the region."

The next steps will see the council seek interest from the market by running a tender process to appoint a delivery partner with the aim to have works starting in autumn this year and completing late 2025. The council will be holding a pre-tender engagement session on 15 March for interested parties to sign up visit the event page website here: Digital event. If you are interested in attending this briefing please contact digitalinfrastructureproject@sthelens.gov.uk for further information.