Local residents have prevented engineers from Openreach from installing poles and overhead wires on Griffiths Drive in Southport

Fed-up Southport residents have taken direct action today to stop Openreach engineers from installing 9 metre high poles with overhead fibre broadband cables on their road. 

Openreach was in town today to carry out cabling and jointing work, which it has been undertaking for weeks in Southport as part of the wider build.

Neighbours on Griffiths Drive have used their cars to block access. 

People living in neighbouring Hesketh Drive, Rookery Road and Henley Drive have also been alerted to work due to take place.

Local resident Darren Boyd-Preece said: “This is all happening because Openreach will not put the cables underground.

“They want to put poles up and string cables up at a high level to our house. 

“The whole street objected to the planning application that was put in, but they simply ignored us. 

Local residents have prevented engineers from Openreach from installing poles and overhead wires on Griffiths Drive in Southport

Local residents have prevented engineers from Openreach from installing poles and overhead wires on Griffiths Drive in Southport

“We have tried our best to engage with Openreach but they will not listen to us and won’t even have a conversation. They have refused to listen to our concerns. 

“So now we have taken the only option left to us, which is to collectively use our vehicles to prevent them from gaining access.

A statement from the residents said: “We already have Virgin Media fibre broadband installed underground and they install this to your property by running a wire along a fence or wall.

“Residents on other roads have offered to support us and park their cars if we would like to take action.

“If we do succeed in stopping the poles, in other areas Openreach has instead given up and installed fibre broadband underground instead.

“They are very ugly structures with potentially 12-20 wires from each pole running into our houses.

“Once installed it is next to impossible to have them removed.”

An Openreach spokesperson said: “Bringing ultrafast broadband to Southport will create huge benefits for families and businesses in the area for decades to come, as well as a welcome boost to the local economy.

“Wherever possible we use existing network to build our broadband upgrades but in Southport cables are mainly buried direct in the ground. The scale and cost of civil engineering to install new underground ducts throughout the area just isn’t viable and would involve months of road closures and disruptions.

“We know that people feel strongly about poles and understand why. Our local team has engaged extensively with local residents, and also explored every possible option for the build.

“Southport has one of the lowest percentages of full fibre broadband coverage in the UK and the existing copper network there is increasingly unreliable, it also takes longer to repair because of the way it was buried historically, so to halt this upgrade would deprive thousands of other local people who want the new technology, both in Southport and surrounding communities.

“We’ve communicated our decision to continue the build by using our existing network wherever possible and positioning any new poles sensitively.”

 

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