We only recently became aware that, despite all the road works going on through Kirkliston, some of the newer parts of the village may not benefit from the new Virgin super fast broadband services.

The problems stem from the fact many roads in the newer parts of the village are yet to be adopted by the Council.

The adoption process doesn’t start until 2-3 years after the last house is built and roads are not normally adopted until all remedial works are complete and in compliance with the council requirements. There are still disputes outstanding in parts of the village.

Virgin Media cannot lay cabling unless they have permission from the road owner. In many parts of the village, the roads are still owned by the housing developers.  The developers often don’t give permission because of problems in getting a road adopted if they have allowed additional works over and above the original build.

We have confirmed with Virgin that they would lay cables in newer areas off the village if they get permission from developers as land owners.  We have also had confirmation from one of the developers – Barratts that they will give permission if the council confirm it won’t detrimentally affect their road adoption.

We are now working with the Council roads officials to try and get that reassurance.

We have made it clear how the issues should have been flagged to us earlier as councillors so we had more time to try and develop a solution and before.