COUNTY hall bosses have pledged to try and boost broadband access in Oxfordshire, as a Euro MP warned the lack of coverage posed ‘serious risks’ to businesses.

Oxfordshire County Council deputy leader David Robertson said the authority had met BT bosses and would bid for Government cash in December to extend coverage.

An estimated one in six county homes get inadequate broadband or none at all.

Mr Robertson said the council’s role would be to bring together BT, Virgin and smaller broadband providers.

“The county council is not in the business of laying cable infrastructure,” he said.

“BT has indicated they are keen to help Oxfordshire build the next generation of access broadband and they are coming to talks to see how that can be achieved.

“We have been told the government is ready and wanting to receive proposals, with funding available.

“But the cost of rolling out fast broadband across the rural areas of the county would run into millions.”

He was speaking at the OxonLine Digital Summit, which brought together businesses, providers and politicians.

South East MEP James Elles urged the council to tackle the lack of access.

Mr Elles said: “The lack of broadband and mobile coverage in Oxfordshire, especially in remote and rural areas, is having a serious impact on both the private and business environments.

“This is directly affecting the prosperity of the country and unless action is taken this presents a severe risk for the future competitiveness of the county.

“It is unacceptable that we expect businesses in Oxfordshire to operate without the necessary basic infrastructure to be competitive in today’s world, never mind tomorrow’s world.”

He said latest projections suggested a third of Oxfordshire had a better than 50 per cent likelihood of receiving the next generation of superfast broadband by 2015.

He said: “When it comes to mobile telephony, the situation is worse – only a few miles from the centre of Oxford, mobile signals fail.”

Currently 17 per cent of the county gets less than 2Mbps.

Some 90 per cent of these people live outside Oxford.

BT recently announced that Witney and Thame are to get super-fast Internet access, allowing download speeds of up to 40Mbps, potentially rising to 60Mbps in the future.

Ed Vaizey, minister for culture communications and creative industries, said: “The Government is committed to driving superfast broadband services into areas where commercial investment alone will not deliver it.

“We want to see superfast broadband rolling out in the countryside at the same time as it appears in towns.”

Mr Vaizey, MP for Wantage, said the Government would help in “commercially challenging locations” from 2011.