NYnet, North Yorkshire County Council’s broadband company, has reached a major milestone in its four-year history by connecting more than 800 sites.

It means 90 per cent of all public sector locations across the region now have access to high-speed, next generation broadband. The connection of the 800th site makes North Yorkshire one of the largest public sector networks in the country providing a platform for the public sector to begin sharing services and thus saving money and running more efficiently.

One of the milestone locations, run by the NHS North Yorkshire and York (NY&Y), is the latest to have received a high-speed fibre link at a new shared location with Selby District Council. The two organisations are now able to share services allowing them to be more efficient, reduce expenditure and ongoing maintenance cost, as well as becoming a more effective use of tax payers’ money. Adrian Snarr, director of finance at NHS NY&Y, said: “With the pressures of Government cutbacks and the current economic climate, partnerships such as these are imperative.

“Having a high-speed link will help the hospital to run more effectively and reduce the impact of cuts on services to patients. Sharing the cost of this link with another public sector partner makes great financial sense.”

David Cullen, pictured, chief executive of NYnet, said: “The value of NYnet is not only demonstrated by public sector organisations utilising the network for their own internal needs, but more importantly having the ability to integrate and share information and applications over NYnet’s shared service virtual private network.” Other examples of shared services already underway is the provision of disaster recovery services through the NYnet data centre, products that enable all public sector staff to have access to secure and remote working technology and call centres services shared between organisations such as Scarborough and North Yorkshire County Council.

Faced with cost pressures and budget cuts, NYnet is helping public sector organisations deliver services in a new transformational way to communities throughout North Yorkshire.