RESIDENTS are pulling together to raise money for faster broadband - after BT said it wasn't financially viable for them to provide.

People living on the Rose Hill and Water Royd estates in Dodworth have been suffering with slow internet which makes downloading and watching films impossible.

John Clapham, of Low Pasture Close, has had internet with BT since 2004 and said it's only marginally improved during that time.

He started a campaign and has asked BT numerous times to install a street cabinet with fibre optic cables to improve the speed but he was eventually told by BT it wasn't financially viable.

"If I lived 100 metres up the road I'd get superfast broadband," he said.

"We pay the same as people who get faster internet, and we all pay a premium on our phone bill for broadband improvements but we're still having to fund our own broadband improvements. I think it's disgusting."

John, 44, was initially told the street cabinet and cabling would cost £22,000, but said BT had agreed to contribute £14,650 and the council would pay £3,662 - leaving the residents to find £10,988.

Radio DJ Simon Hirst, who lives on the Rose Hill estate, has had broadband since 2000 and said slow speeds often interfered with his work and prohibited him from sending and receiving large files he may need for his show.

He added: "It doesn't allow you to watch anything on things like YouTube, it just buffers.

"It's always been bad, but BT just won't upgrade it."

A spokesman said BT isn't under any legal obligation to provide broadband in the way they're obligated to provide a phone service.

He said: "To bring higher speed broadband to this community an extremely complex underground network rearrangement is required as the technology put in place decades ago didn't take into account the invention of broadband.

"The underground cabling from the exchange will be rearranged enabling engineers to install a copper and a fibre street cabinet which will give almost all the residents superfast broadband speeds.

"The costs to do this work are not commercially viable, however we have worked with the local community and agreed to cover a substantial amount of the costs but have asked the local community to also contribute.

"On a per household basis this proposal will be very good value for money and transform the way residents can use the internet."

About 70 people from the Water Royd and Rose Hill estates attended a meeting at Station Road WMC on November 10.

The attendees agreed they would be willing to pay £50 per household and street representatives were appointed to ask others in their neighbourhoods.

Of the 350 houses affected, 69 households have pledged to contribute £50 and of those, 15 said they would contribute up to £100.

John said he was hoping to have all the money collected by December 1, allowing him to instruct BT to begin the upgrade, which involves installing a street cabinet with fibre optic cables.