Broadband boosts take-up at Newby Hall

A BUSINESS centre housed in the grounds of an historic Yorkshire estate has reached full occupancy.

The Stables at Newby Hall in North Yorkshire has 16 business occupiers.

Occupancy rates have been boosted following an investment in high speed broadband.

A 20Mbps fibre connection was brought to the Stables through NYnet and distributed to the offices within the Stables as well as the estate office, entrance pavilion, restaurant and Newby Hall itself, with help from business IT support company, Skipton Systems.

Eleanor Sharp, of The Stables said: “When we opened up the Stables as a commercial development in 2005, the broadband speeds we received were adequate at less than 1Mbps, however with the rapid advancement of technology over the last couple of years, we were struggling to attract new occupiers for our offices with these slow speeds. 

It was becoming increasingly apparent the estate had to invest heavily in up to date technology to be able to compete with other rural business parks in the area.”

NYnet was formed by North Yorkshire County Council with funding from Yorkshire Forward and the European Union, and provides a super-fast broadband network.

Paul Crane, business development director at NYnet, said: “The Stables was a challenge; we really investigated every possible solution to get connectivity to the park but fibre was really the only viable option. 

“We are pleased the estate and the occupiers are now utilising the new connection and it is making a difference to the estate as a whole.”

The estate has already seen vast improvements such as the point of sales machines which now have instant access to process transactions for visitors.  There are plans for making the most of the new connection to help promote events with wifi services for event organisers and the ability to offer live video streaming as part of their wedding packages.