AN about-turn by two major organisations means that the broadband Internet revolution will reach Addingham and Burley-in-Wharfedale this autumn.

But this change of heart has devastated a not-for-profit community group which has spent £5,000 on equipment and collected £4,500 in subscriptions.

The Burley-based LS29.NET group was set up in July after BT told the two villages that installing a broadband connection was 'not viable' for either. Yorkshire Forward also told Burley that it had 'no funds' to bring broadband to the area.

The village group went ahead and spent money on equipment for its wireless, antenna-based scheme.

But now YF and BT have teamed up with Business Links across Yorkshire to allow as many people as possible (up to 1,600 companies and 17,000 homes) to experience the benefits of faster web access.

The decision leaves the local LS29.NET group with a massive headache. Bradford District Councillor Matt Palmer (Con, Rombalds), LS29.NET's Secretary, said: "We are all quite upset about how this has been handled.

"When we decided to see if we could bring broadband to Burley we spoke to BT and YF to check they weren't planning anything, and they confirmed they weren't - in BT's case they confirmed that again less than a week ago. YF, too, confirmed that they didn't have any funding for this sort of thing and would keep us informed.

"It was on that basis that LS29.NET went ahead, so to now hear that YF is basically bank-rolling BT to bring broadband to the village has come as a huge surprise.

"We'd signed up 100 members, more than enough to go ahead, but unfortunately this changes everything.

"A lot of people put in a large amount of time, voluntarily, to bring this benefit to the community and are very concerned at the way YF and BT have behaved.

"We are of course very pleased that broadband will be coming to Burley, but we're left with around £5,000 worth of equipment.

"We'll now have to try and sell our assets and return as much money as possible to our members. My personal feeling is that YF and BT should pay for this because they haven't kept us involved and the information they've given has been inaccurate."

For Burley and Addingham the fruits of the YF and BT partnership are due to be available from Wednesday, November 19, when broadband connections go live on the exchanges in both villages.

Broadband gives users up to ten times faster access to the Internet and will represent a boon to the growing number of home-based, web dependent businesses in Addingham and Burley.

But Peter Settle, vice-chairman of Burley Chamber of Trade, said he also had concerns.

He said: "This news is probably a mixed blessing for the people who have put money into LS29.NET. The village needs broadband connection, obviously, but I don't know if people would have been better off staying with LS29.NET or going the other way.

"The Community Council was heavily involved in initial discussions about getting LS29.NET running on the basis that BT were unable to do it, so there is a bit of confusion here now."

But BT insists it is merely one partner among many in the Broadband Yorkshire and Humber project, and that its involvement has only just been confirmed.

Spokesman Paul Dorrell said: "It has taken an awful lot of negotiations to reach this agreement and it would have been wrong for us to make an announcement before the agreement was reached. That's normal business practice.

"I can understand LS29.NET's sense of frustration and I feel for them, but what we originally told them was correct at the time. However, the situation changed as a result of negotiations."

A spokesman for YF also stuck by the information it had given to LS29.NET. He said: "It was March when they contacted us, at the end of our financial year, and at that time we didn't have any funding.

"We're supporting business take-up of broadband in general. This is for the benefit of businesses.."