FRUSTRATED people in a hamlet claim they’ve been left behind in the race to get the country connected to superfast broadband.

The 30 homes in Heathfield, between Norton Fitzwarren and Milverton, have to put up with painfully slow internet while neighbouring villages can access speeds at least 50 times faster.

Bob Ayers says it’s even more galling because Heathfield lies inside a triangle of green boxes – which provide superfast broadband – and has fibre cables running all around.

Mr Ayers, who has set up the Heathfield Triangle Action Group – a reference to the Bermuda Triangle – said: “It’s really frustrating.

“It’s costing people money and seriously affecting our quality of life.

“Everywhere else around us like Oake, Hillcommon and Cotford St Luke has superfast broadband.

“It wouldn’t cost much to connect us as the cables are already there – the network runs along the front of my yard.”

Mr Ayers said people complaining include.

*a commercial photographer who struggles to send wedding portfolio to clients.

*a farmer who finds downloading and sending off multi-page forms takes forever.

*a farming couple who cannot send large files required to apply to conform to Government regulations at the same time.

*a woman who needed to submit coursework ended up putting it all on a memory stick and posting it rather than e-mailing it.

*her daughter, an undergraduate, cut short her Easter holiday so she could work in the university library as the computer was too slow at home.

*a house sale fell through when the prospective buyer, a home worker, discovered how slow the broadband was.

*schoolchildren in five households are disadvantaged doing their homework.

*a third of the households run businesses from home but many are forced to travel to Taunton for “useable” broadband speeds.

Mr Ayers says broadband speeds in Heathfield are as low as 0.7megabits download and 0.36 upload – compared to 24megabits in nearby villages.

A spokesman for Connecting Devon and Somerset, which aims to make superfast broadband available to 90% of homes and businesses in the two counties by the end of next year, said: “To date, CDS has deployed nearly 600 cabinets that can provide fibre broadband services to well over 130,000 premises.

“Inevitably, there are some locations where it is not viable to provide fibre broadband in the current programme because of the considerable engineering challenges and costs involved.

“However, CDS is currently finalising plans for a further investment of more than £45million which will bring superfast broadband to many more locations.

“Further details will be announced as the programme develops.”