Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport –and the Minister in charge of broadband – was in Penrith yesterday where he met some of Eden’s Broadband Champions.

Jeremy Hunt MP, Sec of State, Miles Mandelson, Gt Asby Broadband Champion, Lindsey Annison, Warcop Broadband Champion, Rory Stewart MP

Best of all, he ‘virtually’ opened Warcop’s Cyberbarn by fusing together a fibre-optic cable (with some help from Lindsey Annison!).

Rory said: “I was delighted to introduce Jeremy to some of the key players of the East Cumbria Community Broadband Forum. And it was a real honour to have him virtually open the Warcop Cyberbarn by actually fusing a piece of fibre-optic cable! It’s been great that the Secretary of State has seen just how effective our community broadband activists are here in Eden, and to see how Cumbria is driving forward the government’s superfast broadband agenda. I’d also like to congratulate Lindsey on the opening of the Cyberbarn, which will be an amazing resource for the people of Warcop and the surrounding area.”

Lindsey has some great videos of the meeting on her blog: http://5tth.blogspot.com/2011/11/dcms-minister-fuses-his-first-fibre-for.html

Cyberbarn, Warcop and Bleatarn, is open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday between 1 and 7pm. Fibre, 3G And satellite technologies are on show. UK Online Basics course are available on everything from email to online safety, DEFRA to CTS, social media to computer programming.