NEARLY £130,000 is to be spent on hooking up villages in Ryedale to broadband internet access.

The funding has just been announced by the Connecting North Yorkshire partnership, which will supply the money.

It is designed to bring high speed internet access to rural areas where it is not commercially viable for telecommunications companies to install it.

In order for an area to be considered for broadband, at least 50 households or businesses are needed to request it.

Now a series of community meetings are to take place across the district to give more information about broadband access and to stimulate demand.

Once the demand has been established, a technical survey can be carried out in the area.

The first project being considered is Rosedale, where a bid has already been put forward by individuals and businesses to access high speed broadband transmitted wirelessly by Moorsweb, a community-owned internet service provider.

"Three community champions have come forward in South West Ryedale, Ampleforth and the Great Wold Valley, so this is where we will be holding community meetings first," said Jos Holmes, community co-ordinator for the Connecting North Yorkshire Project in Ryedale.

"Ryedale is a great place to do business and we want to ensure that rural businesses can take advantage of the opportunities advancing internet technology brings."

The meetings will take place at Sand Hutton Village Hall near York at 7.30pm on Wednesday, November 2 to discuss South West Ryedale, at Ampleforth Village Hall at 7.30pm Tuesday, November 8 and at Luttons School Hall at 7pm on Wednesday, November 16 to discuss broadband for the Great Wolds Valley.

People can help bring high speed broadband to Ryedale by completing the ‘demand map’ at: northyorks.gov.uk/broadbandsurvey