Free public access wi-fi has been switched on in Leyburn town centre.
North Yorkshire County Council is rolling out the scheme in 16 market towns across the county.
The service has gone live this week in the first two towns — Leyburn and Northallerton — this week.
Officials say free public access wi-fi offers opportunities for people with limited or no broadband to access vital local council, government and health services and take part in the digital economy.
As part of the roll-out the county council is enabling access to Eduroam which allows anybody in research or education to access resources on the go.
The scheme is being paid for by a £3m investment from the York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership as part of its allocation from the Government’s Getting Building Fund.
County Councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for access, added: “I welcome this start to our free public wi-fi project, which will help our residents to access information, our visitors to find out more about the local area, and businesses to promote their goods and services.
“This further addition to the county’s digital infrastructure will support town centre high street businesses as they compete against online retailers.
“We have invested up until now around £100m in digital connectivity, especially in rural areas, and we will continue that programme in the years ahead.”
David Dickson, hair of the York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership infrastructure and joint assets board, said: “Improved digital connectivity is absolutely vital.
“It’s a key recommendation in the LEP’s 21st Century Towns report and in the region’s plans to be a greener, fairer and stronger economy as it emerges from the pandemic.
“It’s great to see this scheme’s continued progression.”
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Please could you send me a peer reviewed paper which shows me that WiFi and 5g is safe? I notice that there are 5G masts popping up everywhere when the YDNP have invested many £s in burying the ‘unsightly’ telegraph poles from the Dales. 60ft mast ontop of the iconic fells? No problem, rush it through no problem planning….why??? Our objections were ignored. We have the option of B4RN which would bring us fast internet via a safe wire to every home? Why risk the proven adverse health effects of WiFi and 5G on a population which has not consented?
Caroline oh Caroline why don’t you get a life or better still if you’re that interested in the health effects go and research and find out yourself. Because you don’t seem to believe the massive amounts of research that have been conducted.
Hi Tom oh Tom – I am incredibly interested in the health aspects and have done plenty of research, which is exactly why I posed the question. The massive amounts of research I found showing how wonderful this is was all from those with vested interests. I am interested in research not funded by those benefitting from you accepting what they say, hence the shout out for a PEER REVIEWED STUDY showing 5g to be safe. I challenge you to find one, because so far I have not.
And yes I am cynical after being married to the Army for 25 years and losing cherished people in the first Gulf War, which we were told over and over was to protect the world from terrible weapons of mass destruction…….and … there…weren’t any.
So steady on Tom oh Tom, with the get a life flying off the handle stuff – how about take a breath and join a sensible discussion for the interest and good education of all?
Caroline, how about YOU find a peer reviewed document proving that WiFi and 5G technologies are NOT safe? I’m talking actually reviewed papers in which experts in the field of the technologies are comparing facts and sciences, not scaremongering websites which get money every time you click on their link or
Common sense and simple primary school science classifies that wireless* technologies are safe for general usage. Simply going outside on a sunny day is far more harmful that living anywhere near a WIFI/5G router. Maybe you should throw out your microwave, that emits more “harmful rays” than a WiFi/5G router ever could.
Don’t fall under the pretences that you can just *Google* something and it must be true because you get a lot of results in that very small echo chamber. Search engine results are catered to those looking for a certain answer to questions, so of course if you put in “wireless technologies bad” you’ll get convincing results from red banner or fake news outlets. Stop believing everything you read on the internet.
Enjoy your time in fairy land Caroline but sciences and facts keep the rest of us from looking like idiots in the comments section.
So, Leyburn now has access to free Wifi. I’d like to know who exactly stands to benefit from this initiative? Surely, those around the new infrastructure in the market place, have their own routers. No-one I know who lives in Leyburn remembers being consulted if this is to benefit them? Is it to attract more tourism, to a town already struggling with the current overload of visitors? One of the pubs in the market place was 5 members of staff short at the weekend. The staff were on their knees. Or is this a back-door to the facilitation of more 5g in the area, with all its associated EMF toxicity, surveillance and data collection side-effects? I thought street lights were for lighting? Or could it be that the Council have found a nice way of raising funds, by renting out their street lights for this new telecoms furniture?
How are those of us who are already electro-sensitive supposed to cope? We can box in our home routers to keep us safer. How do we protect ourselves when shopping in the town? Watch out for the potential for even more symptoms of electro-sensitivity in those who live and/or work in the town.
Wow Ess Kay. It amazes me how emotional people are about this. I was looking for a level ‘grown up’ discussion! I have very many peer reveiwed papers showing that 5G is not all it is advertised to be and certainly effects living beings, plants etc in a detrimental way. It is after much research (not on google!) that I ask for just one peer reviewed paper showing this to be safe. The reason I ask, is that I cannot find one. Please would you provide – it would be interesting for you to see behind the curtain. I threw out my microwave many many years ago…. for the same reason that I question the safety of this situation … for all of us. I’m just asking the question, I’m sorry that you feel so defensive about it that it precludes you from a sensible discussion and reduces it all to the level of stone throwing!
Good point Susan. I think there are a lot of folk around not feeling on top form without knowing why. I have some friends who farm over the Cumbrian boarder who have a ‘newly improved’ mast overlooking the farm who have been actually sick daily and the readings were off the chart. I wonder if local people will link any new symptoms with being irradiated – I doubt it, because most microwave their food and believe from the advertising style ‘research’ that going out in the sun is the same danger as wifi!! Actually going out in the sun increases your production of vit D and helps your immune system (something we should all be taking great care of right now) … as if you could be in danger from the sun in Yorkshire lol!