CP2360-23 Legal Support Service for CDS Broadband Project

The appointed Provider will be required to advise the Connecting Devon and Somerset Programme rather than any individual authorities, although Somerset County Council is the Accountable Body for the CDS Programme.

CDS connects some of the hardest to reach communities in England, where the commercial market will not provide the infrastructure without public subsidy.

CDS awards public subsidised contracts to companies through competitive tender to build the infrastructure needed, such as fibre cables or wireless masts. CDS can only invest where suppliers have no declared and credible plans to invest their own resources in networks