Paul Jenkins, of Abbotskerswell, writes:

Our local MP spoke in a debate in parliament about rural broadband just last week.

Sadly for all her campaigning, pictures of her standing by superfast broadband cabinets and warm words, the map of coverage on the website of Connecting Devon & Somerset paints a depressing picture.

The fact is that Newton Abbot, Teignmouth and Dawlish do not seem rural enough: Ipplepen is 'rural' but Abbotskerswell isn't, seemingly. It was galling recently for Abbotskerswell residents to have BT beavering away running broadband cable up the A381 bypassing the village on its way to Ipplepen.

I recently communicated with our parish council enclosing a map showing that we were out of the broadband loop expecting some promises of action etc. but it would seem general resignation locally has set in, my intervention was marked in their minutes as 'Rural broadband is not coming to the village' and that was it.

There are one or two bright spots among the general gloom – some parts of Newton Abbot around Asda and curiously around Orleigh Cross seem to be online already!

In the parliamentary debate Ms Morris said this: 'It must be said at the outset that the government are to be congratulated on their ambition to achieve 95 per cent superfast broadband coverage by 2017, which is admirable.

'The government are to be congratulated, too, on the level of contribution provided to those in rural areas.

'Devon has had a generous settlement, so the real challenge has been matching that funding. At the moment, we are pretty much on course to achieve it.'

The gulf between ambition and reality is stark, it is clear that vast swathes of her constituency will only be connected if there is a commercial imperative to do so and none of this government 'rural' broadband cash is coming this way any time soon.

The roll-out map on the Connecting Devon & Somerset website must be depressing reading for her with an election due.