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The residential community of Bromley Cross, which sits in the leafy northern suburbs of Bolton (Greater Manchester), appear to have succeeded in their campaign against Openreach’s (BT) plan to deploy new wood telecoms poles to support their gigabit full fibre broadband (FTTP) network expansion around Grange Park Road.
The use of poles to run overhead cables (telecoms, electricity etc.) is a common practice in the UK, where millions have been built over the decades. Poles are quick and cost-effective to build (several times cheaper than trenching), can be deployed in areas where there may be no space or access agreement to safely put new underground cables, are less disruptive (avoiding the noise, access restrictions and damage to pavements of trenching) and can be built under Permitted Development (PD) rights; often with only minimal prior notice.
However, many people dislike poles – usually due to their negative visual impact or the lack of effective prior consultation before deployment, which in some cases has occasionally erupted into disruptive protests. The latter is most likely to occur in areas that haven’t previously had poles before (i.e. past cables were underground), as well as areas of outstanding natural beauty or where several gigabit broadband networks may already exist.
In this case the issue is more about visual appearance (some locals also didn’t feel they needed another broadband service), with the area being somewhat of a green space that is also home to protected trees. As one resident told the Bolton News: “Some of these surrounding trees are listed, two hundred-year-old oaks cover the road and our gardens have tree protection orders. This area is special in that way because it’s green space. It would spoil a lovely place.”
The local councillors appear to have played a key role in galvanising opposition to the development and Openreach have now withdrawn the planned deployment. Cllr Cadden said: “Most people thought that going above ground was not modernisation.”
A Spokesperson for Openreach said:
“We’re investing £8.7 million to bring the UK’s most reliable broadband technology – Full Fibre – to thousands of homes and businesses across Bolton.
Around 14,000 homes and businesses in the Astley Bridge area can already order the new service and, as we expand our network, we’re using existing underground ducts and poles wherever we can. In some locations, new poles are the only safe and practical way to deliver this upgraded service and, in this case, the only way we could proceed.
But, following feedback from the local community, we’re now reviewing our investment decision whilst continuing to deliver better connectivity across other parts of Bolton.”
Openreach will have no doubt wished to be sensitive to the new industry agreed ‘Best Practice Guidance’ for gigabit broadband operators that are building new poles as part of their UK network expansions. The guidance aims to support the Government’s goal of “ending the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here), not least by requiring providers to engage more closely with communities before they build (details here).
The impact of the new guidance is, however, somewhat tricky to assess since most alternative networks have already stopped or significantly slowed deployments of new fibre optic broadband infrastructure as a result of wider market strains (i.e. rising build costs, competition and high interest rates). But operator’s like Openreach still make heavy use of them.
Naturally, network operators have a difficult balancing act to perform, which is one that both needs to respect the government’s wishes (inc. local communities), while at the same time trying not to damage the wider roll-out and cost models. Not forgetting that consumers and businesses with access to more than one gigabit broadband network will often still directly benefit from greater choice and lower prices. We also must not forgot those who may have wanted to see the new network being built.