FRESH calls to re-examine Worcestershire County Council’s superfast broadband deal with BT have been rejected – amid claims taxpayers have been “ripped off”.

Councillor Luke Mallett wants the council to look again at the £20 million project, aimed at bringing faster speeds to 55,000 properties.

He said the agreement, which cost the council £8.5 million, needs to be revisited after MPs raised concerns over similar deals across the country.

Coun Mallett, speaking during a full council meeting, also said the fact BT has little competition for the contract made it “uncompetitive”.

“The findings so far are that rural broadband is costing taxpayers 77p to every pound, compared to Sweden where it is 33p to every pound,” he said.

“Given some of the concerns which have been raised across the country, and given the lack of competitiveness with our agreement, how can we be sure we haven’t been ripped off?”

He said one of the worst examples was Liverpool City Council, where a deal was signed costing taxpayers £10 million per year until superfast speeds are established.

In Worcestershire, central government is forking out £3.3 million and BT itself is stumping up the remaining £8.2 million of the £20 million .

Coun Mallett’s comments came just three weeks after the deputy mayor of Worcester, Coun Paul Denham protested at the council heavily funding a deal with a company set to make “massive profits” from it.

But the criticism was rejected by Councillor John Campion, cabinet member for transformation and commissioning, who insisted it was a good deal.

“We went through a rigorous procurement process to get a partner on board,” he said.

“It is a partnership and we are very confident the process we went through is delivering value for money to the public.”

The project will see 90 per cent of homes and businesses in Worcestershire get access to superfast speeds, one of the most expansive projects of its type in the UK.

It will benefit households in rural parts of Worcester-shire, where speeds are slow, including Upton, Evesham, Malvern and Droitwich.

The speed, which is defined as anything above 24 mega-bytes per second, is enough to download large files, watch films or videos.