Residents in the county of Cumbria have to put up with the slowest broadband speeds in the UK, according to a new report.

The North West Evening Mail newspaper has been given access to figures from thinkbroadband which show that broadband services in the area are lagging behind most other parts of the UK.

It was found that Cumbrians taking part in thinkbroadband's survey, which involved a total of 188,000 speed tests, enjoyed broadband averaging out at 2.3Mb.

This was compared to connections in the capital, which stood at 4.5Mb.

"You will see from our graph that there are very few 'faster than 8 meg' connections in the area," said Sebastian Lathinen of thinkbroadband.com.

He added: "These results show that the rural broadband speeds remain significantly below those in cities."

Project Access, in partnership with the North-West Development Agency, has been set-up to provide advice and improve broadband services in the area.