Southport: Broadband firm urged to pause telegraph poles plan

Openreach said it was "engaging extensively" with residents

A council has urged a telecoms giant to suspend plans to install telegraph poles across a seaside town after being inundated with complaints.

The masts will link properties in Southport, Merseyside, with Openreach's Ultrafast Fibre optic broadband network.

Sefton Council said Openreach's dealings with residents had worsened community relations.

An Openreach spokesman said it had "engaged extensively" with people.

Campaigners claim the poles are unattractive, damaging to wildlife and less effective than underground cables.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the call for Openreach to postpone the work follows a meeting between council highways officers and councillors John Fairclough and Greg Myers.

Mr Myers said if the company had held "genuine dialogue" with worried residents "much of the concern would have abated I suspect".

People in Southport are opposed to the masts, claiming they are unsightly and damaging to wildlife

The poles did not need planning permission because they fall under a category of developments which are exempted.

Mr Myers said: "I've had an Openreach clerk of works tell me at a protest that it was unfair to say they hadn't engaged, as he'd personally gone to the homes of the large majority of objectors there and spoken to them.

"I tested this by quickly turning to ask those present for a show of hands to see who had been visited. Of the 20 or so residents only four had been."

Mr Fairclough, the council's deputy leader, added: "The problem for the council is that its hands are largely tied by the legislation which means it can neither grant nor deny permission for these poles.

"Openreach knows this and as telegraph poles are cheaper for them to install in some areas, its attitude with residents seems to boil down to 'legally we can do it, so we will'.

"My message to Openreach is clear - pause the work and properly engage with our residents. BT used to say it was good to talk, after all."

An Openreach spokesman said: "We know that some people In Southport feel strongly about poles and understand why, however, to say we haven't engaged with local residents is simply not true."

He said the company would use the existing network "wherever possible" to upgrade broadband.

Openreach said the scale and cost of civil engineering to install new underground connections throughout the area was not viable and would involve months of road closures and disruption.