Quick appraisal of major project application : “connecting Cumbria” : CCI n°2012UK162PR002 : connecting Cumbria

The productive investment Connecting Cumbria (CCI n° 2012UK162PR002) is implemented by the Cumbria County Council. The project consists in investing € 64,029,542 to improve broadband services in the Cumbria County extending the network coverage to white areas in the County which have no superfast broadband infrastructure or services and where private operators are unlikely to deliver such infrastructure in the near future. On the one hand, the project seeks to develop a superfast broadband network infrastructure. On the other hand, the project will provide business support services to local ERDF eligible small and medium sized enterprises to fully understand and exploit the benefits of the superfast broadband network. The Connecting Cumbria two components are being procured. The first component on the superfast broadband network roll out has been awarded in September to BT Global Services. The second component procurement process is under preparation and is seeking ERDF from the North West England Operational Programme. The Cumbria Council plans to select the contractor in January 2013. The core beneficiaries of the project are the ERDF eligible SMEs which will be especially supported in order to improve their business performance and create new jobs thanks to the new possibilities offered by the superfast broadband network. The Connecting Cumbria project aims also to contribute to a reduction of carbon emissions linked to the development of home working, and to the achievement of social inclusion objectives. The project is scheduled for completion in June 2015 as the operational phase of the project will start in 2015 and is supposed to last until 2022. The total investment reaches € 64,029,542 and it will be funded via € 29,792,827 of national public finance through State aid and € 14, 959,003 of private capitals from the firm responsible for the deployment of the network. The remaining funding need of € 19,277,712 has been requested to the ERDF for the programming period 2007-2013. The project is rooted on the Priority 2 of the North West Operational Programme – Exploiting innovation and knowledge – which focuses on boosting the innovative activities and exploitation of knowledge by SMEs in the region. The main objective of the “Quick Appraisal” of this large project applying for EU co-financing is to verify how well the project has been planned and whether the application submitted to the Commission is compliant with the requirements established in the relevant regulations governing the use of EU funds