RESIDENTS in the North-East are being asked about broadband coverage.

A public consultation is underway giving local people, businesses and broadband operators the chance to comment on the coverage in their area.

The feedback will help shape where funding to improve local broadband services will be spent in future.

People can take part in the consultation by visiting the Durham County Council website and using the broadband coverage map to search for their postcode.

The results will then show if that postcode area already has access to fibre-based broadband or if there are plans to introduce it there in the next three years.

Residents, businesses and broadband operators will be asked if they disagree with the results for the area they searched.

Digital Durham will use the feedback as part of its future plans for the additional funding, which involves delivering fibre-based broadband infrastructure to areas included in the programme that would otherwise miss out.

The public consultation was launched yesterday (Thursday, August 7) and continues until Sunday, September 7.

Feedback from anyone who disagrees with how a particular postcode is categorised could result in it being changed if any anomalies are found, which may also alter the intervention area.

Durham County Council is leading the Digital Durham programme on behalf of nine other local authorities, including Darlington Borough Council, Gateshead Council, Hartlepool Borough Council, Middlesbrough Council, North Tyneside Council, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, South Tyneside Council, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council and Sunderland City Council.

More information can be found at www.durham.gov.uk/consultations. To leave a comment email digital.durham@durham.gov.uk, call 03000 261160 and leave a voicemail, or post feedback to Digital Durham – Public Consultation, Education Development Centre, Enterprise Way, Spennymoor, County Durham, DL16 6YP.