THE deputy leader of Worcestershire County Council has defended the public take-up of superfast broadband - saying it is "something we should celebrate".

Councillor Simon Geraghty says he is confident the response to Worcestershire's multi-million pound project to bring quicker internet speeds to more than 65,000 homes by 2017 is on the right track.

As your Worcester News revealed in August, only around one in five properties able to access the superfast speeds have signed up so far.

The findings have led to opposition Labour councillors labelling the project, which is part-funded by BT, central Government and county taxpayers, "bad value for money".

A new report has now been published by the county council saying it expected take-up to only be around four per cent by now, in line with UK averages from similar shire counties.

Across Worcestershire more than 41,800 homes can now get the speeds and around 7,900 of them are signed up - 19 per cent.

Councillor Geraghty has also sought to dampen expectations about where the schemes goes in the future - saying there will still be rural areas of the county unable to access the speeds.

The current project is due to finish by September 2017, several months earlier than scheduled, after reaching 94 per cent of homes and businesses.

"To be fair to BT they are well ahead of all the milestones with the contracts we have signed with them," said Councillor Geraghty.

"And in terms of the take-up to get nearly 20 per cent, I'm really pleased with that - to be in that position 13 or 14 months in is something we should celebrate."

Speaking during a meeting of the economy and environment scrutiny panel, he also said he wanted to spread the message that it will fall short of reaching everyone.

"I have to be honest, this isn't a 100 per cent programme," he said.

"There will be some premises who won't get these speeds, we knew that when we signed the two contracts - we're doing this on a value for money basis and there will be very remote premises which won't be reached.

"We've never made a 100 per cent pledge because of the value for money issue - otherwise we'll get to the end of the project and people will say 'I haven't got it."

During the debate BT regional director Steve Henderson also turned up to take questions from councillors, saying he was "very much on track".

The new report has also revealed how the second contract signed over the summer with BT now takes the total investment to £28 million.

BT have pumped in £10.4 million and county taxpayers £8.5 million, with the rest either from central Government or the Local Enterprise Partnership.

Another £2.1 million is set to be pumped in under a contract clause known as the 'clawback' mechanism once take-up hits 20 per cent, which is any time now.

Labour councillors have consistently questioned the costs, saying with BT's size it should be able to fund the Government-driven project without a taxpayer subsidy.