THE COUNCIL has been criticised for taking more than two years to install free Wi-Fi around the city centre.

Worcester City Council has had a long-held desire to offer free Wi-Fi throughout the city centre but more than two years of delays have meant it has not yet been installed.

Council bosses said they would not be defending the long time it had taken but the process to find a company to provide free Wi-Fi had been "quite traumatic."

David Blake, managing director at Worcester City Council, said free Wi-Fi would be up-and-running "this year."

"I absolutely agree that this has taken too long and we have not set appropriate expectations," he said.

"I am absolutely not going to defend the timescale that it has taken."

Mr Blake said the original plan meant the city council would have to pay to install the Wi-Fi but later found a company willing to provide it for free but there was "no such thing as a free lunch" and extra costs would surely have arisen.

Councillor Chris Mitchell said the council needed to be better at delivering on promises and the two-year delay was not good enough.

He said: "We are two years down the line and we still do not have a city Wi-Fi and the [Worcester] app seems to have disappeared.

"It goes back to my views on delivery.

"We have got to get better at delivering on things that we say we want to do and are going to fund because it is hugely frustrating.

"I cannot believe it could be that difficult to go out and find a provider to provide Wi-Fi down the city centre.

"I'm not saying it's easy but it can't take two years. I find it very frustrating that we are not delivering on projects that we fund and prioritise and we have got to get better at it.

"We're just taking too long to do stuff.

"We're making things too difficult."

The city council had officially been looking for a Wi-Fi provider since December 2017 and originally planned to move ahead with a £123,000 three-year scheme – which included installation, running costs and maintenance. A one-off up-front cost of £54,500 was quoted.

Public Wi-Fi specialists InTechnology has emerged as the council's latest preferred provider which the council said has offered a contract which would mean it did not have to pay any one-off up-front costs towards the scheme.

A survey of the potential sites was taken by the city council before Christmas and it expects the free Wi-Fi to be up-and-running by "mid-2020."

The city council hopes providing free Wi-Fi will be of great benefit to the city’s businesses and believes it will bring more people to the city, which supports the High Street and local economy, and gives tourists better access to attractions, restaurants and directions.