VILLAGERS in the most rural homes and businesses in Avoncliff are looking forward to the arrival of high-speed broadband.

David Pippett from the village helped to create a partnership between between Openreach and the area, providing 43 people, including nine small businesses, with full fibre broadband and some of the fastest available speeds in the country.

Mr Pippett said: “This is going to transform the whole village. There’s a number of small businesses based here and most of them, including myself, work from home for all or part of the week, so having this future-proof broadband technology in the village will be a game changer.”

Ex-professional Triathlete Mark Threlfall, who also works in Avoncliff said: “Both myself and my partner work from home during the week and the broadband is a major issue when we’re both online trying to work – one of us will end up crashing the system. I’d love to have the flexibility to work from home more and having the faster broadband will give me the freedom to do that.”