THE path to better broadband in Hexhamshire is picking up speed.

After two and a half years the rural homes, farms and business which make up the parish could finally benefit from a faster internet connection.

Properties in Whitley Chapel and the surrounding areas had been left out of the county-wide high speed broadband roll out due to their hard-to-reach location.

Last month BT installed fibre optics cables at the connection in Steel, while Whitley Chapel will be connected up over the course of next year as part of the phase two of the Northumberland County Council upgrade.

However, the cables are expected to reach only 50 per cent of the approximate 300 properties in the parish, leaving the rest languishing without the essential service.

Behind the scenes, Hexhamshire Parish Council has been working to find a way of bringing super fast broadband to the remaining properties.

A solution could lie in transmitting broadband through microradio wave signals,.

The suggestion was first mooted to the council in 2013 but could become a reality for the Shire by 2016.

Coun. Austin Iliffe said: "At the minute we are working on funding the infrastructure needed to do this.

"It's been highly frustrating not having fast broadband and the difficulty of two and a half years while the focus has been on delivering it to urban areas.

"The shire is a very large area with a spread out population of 700 or so people, so we are not a high priority but we are beginning to feel that we have got some light at the end of the tunnel."

Coun. Iliffe has been leading the parish council broadband initiative which is currently looking at a choice of three different companies to help deliver microwave broadband.

It is hoped the wireless scheme could be delivered by harnessing a signal from a microwave broadband transmitter at Kiln Pit Hill, which is connected to the fibre optic network.

In order to fund the scheme, the council is appealing for local businesses to sign up to Broadband Delivery UK's Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme.

Each business can benefit from a connection voucher of up to £3,000 meaning that, if awarded, businesses in the Shire could raise a sizable amount to fund the initiative.

Once established individual properties pay a one-off charge of £150 for the installation of a receiver and a monthly charge to benefit from high speeds of up to 30 megabits per second.