COMMUNITY is celebrating getting superfast broadband after they teamed up with BT.

Residents in Maltings Park, West Bergholt, which includes the Grade II listed Truman building, are the 300th community in the country to sign a jointly funded deal with BT to get the high-speed technology.

Other parts of the village set to benefit from the deal include Heathlands Primary School as well as Lexden Road and Colchester Road.

The project involves funding from the community and Openreach, which is part of BT Group. A £5,000 grant from BT’s Community Fibre Partnerships programme will pay for the engineering work.

Rick Cranfield, deputy headteacher at Heathlands Primary School, said: “Access to fibre broadband is going to have a significant impact on all of our pupils.

“With a number of wireless devices in our school, the increased internet speed will allow our pupils to develop as the independent learners we aspire them to be.

“As well as being able to collaborate across classrooms and with children in different countries, the technology will provide effective access to online resources that inspire pupils to learn and engage them fully in their education.”

The community set up a crowdfunding page to successfully raise funds. Community co-ordinator Julian McCallum said: “I am delighted the Truman Residents Association have signed the community funded fibre contract with Openreach. Using Spacehive, the crowdfunding platform, helped us greatly in getting our project seen by a much wider audience within the community.

“This project will make a massive difference not only to the residents, but also our school. ”

High-speed fibre broadband will be available for 370 premises in the area, and is due to be completed by the end of next spring.

Steve Haines, managing director for Openreach, said: “Around 150 communities across the UK can already access high-speed fibre broadband through our co-funded Community Fibre Partnerships scheme.

“We will ‘never say no’ to any community that wants superfast fibre broadband connectivity and hope that this scheme will encourage even more communities to work with us.”

To find out more go to www.communityfibre.bt.com