VILLAGERS in Elmley Castle and the Combertons have launched a campaign in a bid to persuade BT to introduce broadband high speed internet services in the village served by the Elmley Castle exchange..

Campaign organiser Jeremy Harris pointed out that many of the villages around Bredon Hill had access to broadband services but Elmley Castle, Great Comberton and Little Comberton had been left out in the cold.

"This is bad news for residential users," he said, "but for the many local businesses and the growing number of employees who needed access to their employer's computer network from home it's a serious handicap."

He said development of new technology had reduced the cost of enabling small exchanges and the trigger level for the Elmley Castle had been reduced to 150.

"With more than 70 registrations already received, the campaign has been launched to increase awareness of the benefits of broadband and to encourage more subscribers to register in order to hit that target of 150 as soon as possible," Mr Harris said.

Subscribers with numbers beginning with 01386 71 can find out more and register on the campaign website www.broadband4elmley.co.uk. Registration takes a minute.

Mr Harris said: "We hope that people will realise the importance of registering because they will also be helping to bring a much needed and valuable service to the whole community."