An issue that takes up much of my time is improving digital connectivity across the constituency to ensure homes and businesses have access to fast reliable broadband.

I am working with Openreach, Building Digital UK, ministers and officials from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, as well as local groups across the constituency on an array of projects all aimed at improving services across both our towns and villages.

So, I was pleased to meet with bosses from Openreach, after all the debates I’ve led in the House of Commons on improving broadband, who are now doing a major infrastructure upgrade in Knutsford to a new ultrafast Full Fibre network. 

Their senior engineering manager Dane Packer provided me with a step by step demonstration of the technology being used there - I was even allowed to help lay a cable! Obviously closely overseen. 

This build across Cheshire scheme has already connected more than 225,000 homes and businesses and now the first 1,000 homes and businesses in Knutsford have gone live.

I am also working to develop solutions for more rural parts of the community and am in regular discussions with Digital Minister Julia Lopez and Building Digital UK (BDUK) about this. 

There are different government funded schemes available to residents who suffer with slow speeds but I know from working with different villages across the constituency one model does not fit all.

Those schemes need to be adapted and this is what is happening in areas such as Little Peover. The area has suffered with bad connectivity but now BDUK are collaborating with them after I worked with a group of residents there to try and find a solution. 

The speeds they were having to tolerate were not acceptable and a survey of residents highlighted how bad with issue was.

While more than 63 per cent of residents in Cheshire had access to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) or full fibre broadband, in Little Peover it was just 16 per cent.

Download speeds in the village were also roughly half of other areas, and many of the properties fell below the Universal Service Obligation with an average speed of just 5.39mbps.

This was simply not good enough. Reliable digital connectivity should not be a luxury afforded to urban areas.

So, after a series of meetings with the minister, the chief executive of Building Digital UK and the lead resident for Lower Peover I have managed to get more money put into the broadband voucher scheme and on top of that we are aiming to get a new system for small rural communities - which can then be rolled out for similar communities across the country.

To contact me you can email me on 01625 529 922 or officeofesthermcveymp@parliament.uk