AROUND £2.5m is being made available to improve Cumbria's high speed broadband. 

The funding is part of the Connecting Cumbria project and the additional amount is from funding that BT is making available to extend Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) projects across the UK. 

The money is being given to Cumbria County Council to reinvest in providing further superfast broadband coverage to even more homes and businesses. 

Councillor David Southward, Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet Member responsible for economic development, said: “This money is a bit like a reward for delivering superfast fibre broadband on track and on time and surpassing the original expectations on how many people will be signing up to fibre. 

"BDUK are allowing us to reinvest even more money into getting to more of the hardest to reach properties.”