West Worcestershire Conservative candidate Harriett Baldwin has this week repeated her call for BT to speed up its delivery of rural broadband projects. Harriett spoke out after meeting businesses based at Mitre Farm in Corse Lawn who are struggling with both poor internet connections and sketchy mobile phone connectivity. Harriett visited Kingdom Interiors which is based in a series of converted barns as part of the Mitre Farm business, with local district councillor Bronwen Behan. The company employs 18 staff and ships high-quality fabrics all over the world and the business increasingly depends on the internet to do business. Although Rowan Thomas, who manages the complex, has dug trenches to the nearby main road to connect into the network, the cabinet upgrade could be many years away. Harriett said: “It was great to meet the staff at Kingdom Interiors and see what an amazing job they do in such a beautiful rural location. It is essential that Worcestershire County Council puts the foot on the gas to ensure BT delivers proper connectivity as soon as possible. “The company needs high speed broadband to manage its graphics-rich website and its online business and it is down to the local authority, BT and the Government to help ensure companies like these can thrive, wherever they are based. “Superfast Worcestershire has made some great steps forward helping to deliver broadband to the larger population areas and many people are now able to access fibre connections. “Earlier in the year, I discussed this matter with Culture Secretary Sajid Javid and if I am re-elected on May 7, I will re-start the process of cajoling BT and Openreach to speed up their work to deliver superfast broadband to rural areas.” Photo: West Worcestershire parliamentary candidate joins local councillor Bronwen Behan on a tour of Kingdom Interiors at Mitre Farm, Corse Lawn.