SUPERFAST broadband is coming to villages near Chesham after £775,000 of funding was secured for the project.

Cholesbury, St Leonards and Bellingdon will all benefit from the new service after a successful Buckinghamshire County Council bid to secure extra government funding.

Around 700 homes in the area will have new fibre optic cables laid to them when work gets underway.

Another four villages north of Buckingham will also be given superfast broadband for the first time, the council announced.

Council Leader Martin Tett said: "Releasing these two rural communities from a broadband cul-de-sac is not only good news for residents, but also for small businesses who need access to high quality, high speed broadband."

Chris Brown, Convenor of the Cholesbury Exchange Superfast Broadband Working Group, said: "This is fantastic news for everyone in the Cholesbury exchange area. Securing the funds to pay for all the new infrastructure needed to give us access to superfast broadband has been very much a team effort."

The money came from Broadband Delivery UK's rural broadband fund, with Bucks Business First putting forward the county's business case to the government.