A NATIONAL initiative to give everyone in Britain access to fast broadband has seen 25 per cent of its uptake come from North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire was the first county in the UK to deploy Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funds allocated by Government to roll out faster broadband across the county.

Superfast North Yorkshire, a partnership between North Yorkshire County Council and BT, is on target to to give access to superfast broadband to 90 per cent of homes and businesses, the equivalent of 365,000 premises in the county, by the end of the year.

The organisation is now working with engineers to delivery workable methods for targeting the more remote areas making up the remaining ten per cent, with pilots due to start on wireless connections and use of remote nodes.

John Moore, chief executive of broadband supplier NYnet, said: "We've got £10 million from the Innovation Fund, and are looking to work with a company called Airwave over developing wireless connections.

"That potentially brings a big player to the market, and a big foot in the door to connect the remaining areas."

The target for Superfast North Yorkshire is to achieve a minimum uptake of 20 per cent of people who have access superfast broadband connecting to it.

However in some areas in the Selby district the organisation has seen uptake levels surpassing 40 per cent thanks to the work of Superfast North Yorkshire's community teams.

On Friday business owners and residents met with Mr Moore and Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams to share successes stories following connections to superfast broadband.

Mr Adams said: "This is North Yorkshire leading the way which is really great. I'm particularly pleased to here the top three areas nationally for uptake are in Selby and Ainsty."