Openreach phone and broadband cables

[puppet]

We have had several trees bring the cable down but they put the cable right under them making maintenance much harder. The cable will stretch to ground level after pinging off the pole. Just don't stand on it when you cut the fallen limb or you may lose an appendage.
The contractor just needs to clear 1m round the cable so when the leaves appear the branches are often touching it in first year. I have cut some back. The cable won't be damaged as long as no chain saw is near it.

 

[___\0/___]

How come for electric poles and pylons, we get paid a wayleave and the DNO takes responsibility for vegetation management, but BT never pay a wayleave and (by the sound of it) expect us to manage the vegetation or pay for repaired lines?

I would be interested if there is a proper legal basis to this. I am talking about communal lines, not the ones that just serve your own property.

We are in the process of trying to get Wayleave payments, this is what they will ask for

In order to further review your claim please if possible can you provide photographs of the apparatus showing the following –



• Photographs showing the approximate location of the apparatus within your boundary
• Show all markings/engravings
• If claiming for a pole, photographs showing the steps at the top of the pole (please note all BT poles have steps if your pole shows no steps this will belong to the electricity company and a claim should be made through them for the pole)
• Show all apparatus and wires at the top of the pole as BT may have some equipment on electricity poles.



Additionally to the above please could you confirm proof of ownership that you own the land the apparatus sits on.



We can accept;

* A dated letter from a legal representative such as a Solicitor confirming purchase of the land.

* A dated mortgage statement (if applicable)

* Title deeds (copy)

* Evidence of ownership transfer (if land has been recently purchased)

Upon receipt of this information I will further review your claim.

 

[steveR]

We are in the process of trying to get Wayleave payments, this is what they will ask for

In order to further review your claim please if possible can you provide photographs of the apparatus showing the following



Upon receipt of this information I will further review your claim.

How to make it is difficult as possible...

I would be more interested in how one serves Notice to remove them? Or do they have protection as vital infrastructure...?

 

[MrNoo]

I find here we have the opposite, a team goes around for SSE and literally any tree/bush/vegetation within a 10m wide swath of a cable is cut and chipped which is fine except for when a cable goes over one of your release pens…..!!

 

[___\0/___]

How to make it is difficult as possible...

I would be more interested in how one serves Notice to remove them? Or do they have protection as vital infrastructure...?

Think you can put in a form to get them removed but whether they would let you I honestly don't know.

I have refused access until my payments are sorted, just need the wind to take down a pole or two.

 

[steveR]

Think you can put in a form to get them removed but whether they would let you I honestly don't know.

I have refused access until my payments are sorted, just need the wind to take down a pole or two.

Maybe Storm Manitou, or Gale Merlot

 

[Steevo]

Maybe Storm Manitou, or Gale Merlot

Based on the officially recognised alphabet system it’s JCB first, then Kramer….

You’ve got to do things properly and follow the protocol…!

 

[Wombat]

I find here we have the opposite, a team goes around for SSE and literally any tree/bush/vegetation within a 10m wide swath of a cable is cut and chipped which is fine except for when a cable goes over one of your release pens…..!!

It used to be like that with the old northern power lot, the new lot have literally cut a square in a fir tree despite me telling them to take the whole lot down Nope they had to rope up and cut around the wire

 

[reb1952]

Gale Merlot sounds more like a surfeit of red wine rather than telehandler damage. "Oooh, this cheap plonk doesn't half make me fart !"

 

[Tractor Boy]

We have openreach/bt lines coming up our farm drive with the cable going through tree branches. There is an old ash tree, an old oak and a horse chestnut all at least 2 foot diameter trunks if not more and yet the last BT engineer told me that landowners would keep planting trees too close to their cables!! The phone line was only put in in the 1970’s!

 

[Steevo]

We have openreach/bt lines coming up our farm drive with the cable going through tree branches. There is an old ash tree, an old oak and a horse chestnut all at least 2 foot diameter trunks if not more and yet the last BT engineer told me that landowners would keep planting trees too close to their cables!! The phone line was only put in in the 1970’s!

Openreach don't exactly have a great record on here for where they seem to lay their own cables i.e. laid on top of ground in a verge/ditch or strung up along the side of a hedgerow.

Think they need to get their own house in order first!

 

[thesilentone]

Our lane is lined by Oaks, they would be there long before BT or telephones. The phone poles and lines would have be installed below the branches long before who is liable for what, was the issue.

Preventative maintenance by BT would be a sound policy, such as lopping branches etc, however then the pandoras box of liability is opened.

So, by the sound of things, it's like many things, very adhoc, and down to the area controller's attitude.

BT and Openreach are a bunch of wxxxers, but the actual people on the ground that work for them (with a very few exceptions) seem to be first class.

It is another of the Utilities that Maggie sold off that has never realised it's potential, and has been caught sleeping while the Internet and world wide communication swept it aside.

AT&T, Google etc have the World by the short and curley's, BT should have been up there as a world player in communication and media.

Now, the majority of calls on our landline are BS and scam calls, and again BT sit on there hands. Many rural communities are still without a decent broadband connection.

 

[steveR]

Gale Merlot sounds more like a surfeit of red wine rather than telehandler damage. "Oooh, this cheap plonk doesn't half make me fart !"

You shop at Poundstretchers too then.....?