Local councils or planning authorities refusing cab installs

I'm in Hadleigh, Suffolk (EAHAS exchange) and luckily the cabinet I'm on already has an FTTC twin installed and ready to be switched on. But according to the local town council, either the local district council and/or the local planning authority have refused permission for two cabinets to be installed elsewhere in the town. I suppose this must have happened in other places, but I honestly can't remember reading about it on here since FTTC started being rolled out properly - quite the opposite, everywhere and everyone seems desperate for it. So has anyone heard of it happening elsewhere? The site of the existing PCPs where the FTTC twins would be installed means that the only thing they'd be obstructing is a dirty old wall and piece of pavement (with the piece of pavement already obstructed by the existing 50 year-old PCPs); they aren't in parks, beside nature reserves, or some sort of town monument, etc.

There are many examples where local authorities have refused planning consent for the installation of FTTC cabinets. Most if not all cases were where the intended location of the cab was in a conservation area. In most other cases planning consent is not required although in many if not all cases the LA is informed of BT's intentions.

Hove is one area where there were problems, and Richmond I think was another. But there have be others also.

...and was the result a load of arguing or at least bickering amongst authorities? Who "won"?

The locations of these cabinets definitely wouldn't be in conservation areas.

I believe Donegall Street in Belfast is also being blocked. There are two cabs on the street and both are not being enabled for FTTC, where as the cab in North Street, which is around the corner is.

Donegall street is really an eye sore so how two extra cabs would make any difference. [censored] disgrace.

Do you know that your area is not a conservation area? If you check with the local council then you will find out.

If planning has been required, check with the planning dept. to find out the reason for any such refusal. You may find out that if planning has been required then your local town council may have objected to the planning permission.

Though BT Openreach has code powers to place their equipment, they don't have outright power to just place cabs where they want. If they intend to place cabs in stupid locations (blocking sight lines from road junc's etc.) then they may be delayed until they can arrange a new location.

Edited by deleted (Sun 13-May-12 02:29:44)

@Yaz

There's been several delayed in Ramsgate, which I believe are in a conservation area, but there are no planning applications showing on UK Planning. They now seem to be rescheduled for the end of the month, when they were scheduled for the end of March, when the majority of the others were done.

This one ( http://g.co/maps/6hmqg ) still isn't rescheduled, any thoughts, or just BT strange way of working

the problem with that one is the people in the french bread cafe wouldn't like the view of the nice new fibre cab, if it came with scrawl then it would be okay.

the pavement seems very narrow could this be the reason? Need to factor in wheel chair / push chair access etc?

Not for one of them at least, and in both cases, unless BT/Openreach have decided to put them in silly places in relation to the original cabinets, they won't obstruct any more of the pavement than the originals. For the record, here's one:

http://g.co/maps/3ug7s

...and here's the other, where the pavement is a bit narrower, but again, there's already a PCP/Pole there...

http://g.co/maps/dn9y5

4 cabs in the town (again, like mine, luckily) have already been installed, including one which has had to be put on the pavement because someone didn't want it on the edge of their grass (even though an existing PCP is on their grass, because it's older than the house which was built near there).

Hi Ronski,

I don't know of the specifics of this site but I could probably check things out.

Off the top of my head I've no idea where the FTTC cab was going to be placed. A logical place for the FTTC (my opinion only) would be to place it round the corner in George Street where the pavement is wider and out of any site lines. Reality may be much different.

In Welwyn Garden City the local council has rejected all planning applications for FTTC cabinets in conservation areas as they are deemed "detrimental to the street scene" whatever that may mean! I live in a conservation area and my street already has 3 old and tatty Virgin Media cabinets and 1 BT cabinet, so I think a shiny new FTTC cabinet might actually improve the street scene!