Published on Sat Sep 17 06:00:00 BST 2011
AN embattled £100m taxpayer-funded scheme to offer next- generation internet access to much of South Yorkshire could be sold off to the private sector when Yorkshire Forward is wound up next year.
Phil Coppard, chief executive of Barnsley Council and one of the driving forces behind the South Yorkshire Digital Region project, has told the Yorkshire Post it “may be no bad thing” if the 50 per cent shareholding in the scheme currently owned by the regional development agency is sold off to a private telecoms firm.
No surprises there then!
Not sure if it'll be a good or bad thing, I presume even with a fire sale of RDA assets.. the local councils will still own 50% of the network?
My guess is though if there's a party interested in buying the network as a whole even at knock down prices they'll be looking to offload their 'share' too..
Not sure where that'll leave Thales contractually...