THE Crewkerne-based manufacturers of one of the world's quickest cars has joined a campaign for faster broadband in Somerset.

The project – Connecting Devon and Somerset – is calling on 10,000 residents from the two counties to sign up and demand a super-fast service in the area.

And the campaign has won the support of Ariel – a company which relies on speed.

The firm's history for innovation in design goes back to the days of the Penny Farthing and its latest innovation – The Atom – was acclaimed by Jeremy Clarkson as the fastest car he has ever driven.

The Ariel Atom remains at the top of the Top Gear power lap leaderboard for the world's fastest cars.

With a factory in the countryside just outside Crewkerne and additional workshops in the village of North Perrott, Ariel provides an excellent example of how business can thrive in rural locations as well as big cities.

But one of director Simon Saunders' biggest bugbears is the unreliability of the 21st-century infrastructure needed to support his company's growth and innovation – broadband.

He said: "We rely on high-speed communication for every aspect of our business. Our world has changed immeasurably in the past ten years, car design used to involve pencils and paper. But in today's world, it's highly reliant on the computer.

"We have to send large data packages to suppliers and contractors quickly and reliably. With our current access to broadband it is often slow and simply isn't reliable. The connection drops out entirely at least once a day and although speeds are variable, they're never that fast.

"We've also had complaints from some of our business tenants that the local broadband service is adversely affecting their business. For one of them, it's making life so difficult that they're considering relocating out of the county. Fast and reliable broadband is an absolutely vital part of business life today, it's not an optional extra. If we don't have super-fast broadband, we simply won't be able to compete in the global marketplace."

The Connecting Devon and Somerset project is a collaboration between Somerset County Council and Devon County Council. It aims to provide 100 per cent broadband coverage of 2Mbps with a minimum of 85 per cent super-fast broadband at 24Mbps by 2015 and super-fast broadband for all by 2020.

The campaign, which launched on Monday, is asking everyone to respond to a survey requesting information about their online activity. Questions will be about current broadband speeds, how much people would be prepared to pay and what faster speeds would mean to individuals, businesses and communities.

Information will be sent out by direct mail. Residents will be contacted by phone, and there will also be a phone number and website to enable people to participate in the survey at work, in the library, or wherever they can. The councils need at least 10,000 responses.

The project has secured £31 million of funding from the government agency Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and both Somerset and Devon County Councils will be putting in up to £10 million each.

Councillor David Hall, Somerset County Council's cabinet member for strategic planning and economic development, said: "We need everyone to get behind us on this.

"Although we have up to £51 million already, we must secure further investment from the private sector. To do this we need to provide evidence that there is a strong demand for super-fast broadband.

"It is the only way we will reach many rural areas and market towns.

"It really is a call to arms. If we don't have the evidence, we can't convince commercial suppliers to go into partnership with us. This has real implications for economic growth and the competitiveness of our businesses as well as our ability to provide services."

According to Ofcom, almost 18 per cent of premises across both counties are getting less than 2Mbps. In Somerset, only four per cent of the county can access super-fast broadband.

For more information visit www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk.