A COMMUNITY fed up with sluggish broadband speeds have enlisted the support of their MP to push for super fast speeds.

The Star has been contacted repeatedly by frustrated residents unhappy that BT Openreach have not activated cabinets in their streets.

And residents of Ashbury Drive and surrounding streets in Haydock joined together for a protest over their poor internet access last weekend.

They were joined by Conor McGinn, the Labour MP for St Helens North.

Mr McGinn, who lives in Earlestown, said: “It’s not just an issue for residents in this part of Haydock but in Windle, Parr and across the constituency.

“It is simply unacceptable that many of my constituents do not have access to decent quality broadband.

“Access to the internet is a necessity, not a luxury, and problems with the roll-out are having an adverse effect on small businesses, students, and families in my constituency who struggle to cope with slow speeds.

“I want to see action taken so that everyone has access to good quality broadband, and I will press the issue with Ministers and BT Openreach so that we get a speedy resolution.”

Huw Fletcher who lives on The Rides, Haydock says he has been waiting for two years, with the rollout date for his neighbourhood to have fibre optic broadband having been put back.

"If I lived literally 200 yards down the road I could have Virgin but we are stuck with what we have and basically no hope of getting anything sorted," said Huw, 34.

"There are two cabinets installed at the top of our road and nothing has changed and now there's a vague hope it'll be there by Christmas.

"I can't do basic things and if you have to do a large download I have to go to someone else's house.

"I can stream Netflix as long as nothing else is connected but it's like going back to dial-up. As far as I know it's the same way for everyone in our street."

He added: "You want at least a half-decent speed, it is not fit for purpose. It is a big issue and there's just a lack of answers. Everyone asks you to speak to someone else, somebody must know what the reason is."

A spokesman for BT said: "This area of Haydock has to be connected to the superfast network by a commercial communications company – of which BT is just one. The street cabinets needed to make faster broadband possible cannot be publicly funded by Government aided programmes such as Merseyside Connected.

"Any commercial company has to make its own decision based on solid financial and technical evidence in each case. We will continue to keep all such areas under review."