WHILE most households are blessed with the convenience of doing the weekly shop online, the same cannot be said for the Moore family.

Gary, his wife Karen and two children, along with three other homes in a private drive, have been fighting for faster broadband for the last decade.

The Moores, of Deben Road in Colchester, are with Sky but have been trying to change to Virgin Media.

But as they are on a private drive, Virgin refused to hook them up, saying it would be uneconomical for them to dig up the road and connect them.

Frustratingly, there is a Virgin fibre-optic cable at the end of the private road, about 400 yards away.

Mr Moore said: “They said they would need to dig up the private road and they did not want to pay the costs to do that, we offered to pay for the work but they still refuse to carry it out.

“Unless we pay out a lot of money for monthly 4G subscriptions there is nothing we can do. It would cost us about £75 a month just for the internet.”

The couple have two children, Chloe, 14, and Daniel, 12, who go to school in Manningtree.

IT consultant Gary occasionally works from home, which means he cannot use the internet at the same time as the children doing their homework because the connection is so slow.

He said it takes about four seconds to load a basic web page, when the connection should ideally be instant so what should be considered leisure time is fast becoming a chore.

He added: “If you are doing Tesco online shopping it takes ages, for something you do for convenience it isn’t convenient at all.”

They found hope when Essex County Council’s Superfast Essex project advertised their street as being included. However it turns out this was not the case, as the county council has the house recorded as being serviced by Virgin Media, because of the fibre-optic cable at the end of the road.

Mr Moore said: “With our children growing up and the internet becoming more and more important in our daily lives, we are left in frustration at the slowness of our connections while the rest of the street enjoy fast internet via Virgin Media.”

A spokesman from Essex County Council said the Moore family would be eligible for the scheme in the future following the misunderstanding.

He said: “Superfast Essex helps people access superfast broadband in cases where no commercial solution is available. Virgin Media previously informed Superfast Essex that a service was available in Deben Road.

“However after we learned of the problem Mr Moore faces we have been in touch with Virgin Media which has confirmed it cannot provide a service for him.

“This means Mr Moore’s property, and the three neighbouring properties, will now be eligible for investment in future Superfast Essex initiatives.”