Campaigners hoping to bring high speed broadband access to Market Drayton have declared themselves “in the race” to succeed.
Around 1,000 residents have voted online in a nationwide competition called The Race to Infinity for towns to register their interest in upgrading to the new broadband system.
The competition is run by BT and the five towns and villages with the largest percentage of votes by December 31 will win the chance to have the fibre optic Infinity broadband system installed by 2012.
Members of the Infinity4Drayton group have been visiting homes in the town, persuading people to vote by logging on to www.racetoinfinity.bt.com/home
Market Drayton currently lies sixth in the race, and Mike Smith of Infinity4Drayton said at least 3,000 more votes were needed to force the town into the top five.
He said: “We received the 1,000th vote at 6pm on Tuesday and we’re currently sixth out of 2,495 other towns in the UK.
“But we have a mountain to climb to get into fifth place and we need a minimum of 3,000 votes to get there.
“The one big plus we’ve had is the success of knocking on doors and we’ve been getting 98 to 99 per cent of people signing up, saying ‘It’s good for the town so we’ll do it’.
“This is the only opportunity we have of getting it and it only takes half of the people in Market Drayton with telephones to vote for us to have a chance.”
Infinity4Drayton is stepping up its campaign with a poster competition at Market Drayton Junior School and has won support from town councillors.
Councillor Roger Hughes, who helped to bring broadband to Market Drayton in 2003, said: “We’re now in the race to get the Infinity system and the benefits are huge.
“We can attract high-tech businesses here with good jobs, people can watch TV online and experience faster downloading of films and games.
“The people who want it should make sure all their family, relatives and friends vote, otherwise we’ll never get it.
“This is our one and only chance and if the town doesn’t get it, it will be the fault of the people of Market Drayton.”
By Winston Brown