The disappearing cabinet! Installed one day, then removed!

A bit of a strange one:

I am on the Tenby exchange. The exchange is scheduled to have fibre ready for December this year.

BT submitted the planning applications recently, and began work on installing new fibre cabinets last week. I think mine is the first cabinet they're doing as it's one of the closest to the exchange, and I haven't seen any work being done on any other cabinets in the town yet.

On Monday 4th August, they dug a hole next to my cabinet (PCP 10). See this photo: http://s17.postimg.org/9p0hbmptr/Cab01.jpg

The hole was left with barriers around it for a week, with various pipes sticking out of it. See this photo: http://s24.postimg.org/y9ae1984l/Cab02.jpg

Then, on Monday this week (the 11th), a truck showed up in the morning with a shiny new fibre cabinet on it. They put the cabinet in the freshly dug hole, connected it all up and whathaveyou, then lay fresh tarmac around it to seal the gaps and finish the job. The barriers were taken away, and off the crew went into the sunset. The install was finished, and our cabinet was ready to go! Happy days!

HOWEVER...

Today, I was walking past, and had to do a double take - our brand spanking new fibre cabinet has disappeared!

Literally, completely gone.

See this photo: http://s27.postimg.org/ggvkxdjsj/Cab03.jpg - they've dug it up, taken it away, and filled the hole where it stood just a few days ago with more tarmac (you can even work out the darker, fresher, cabinet-shaped patch of tarmac within the previous tarmac on the photo!) In fact, if I hadn't seen the cabinet standing there with my own eyes on Monday, I'd have never even known it had existed!

Has anyone heard of anything like this before? Why on earth was it installed, the job completed, and then just... removed?!

Have my fibre dreams come to an end?!

So you actually got a cabinet installed? PCP29 in Pembrole didn't even get installed, they showed up, dug a hole, filled it in and that was it. It was supposed to go in the day after my Sisters one (PCP30) but nothing has happened.

Superfarce Cymru are being very vague about progress which is annoying considering they are publicly funded but it seems that giving straight answers to the public isn't in their remit (unless it is just for generation of positive spin) It took 4 emails to get them to say that work on PCP29 is at an early stage - whatever the hell that means - which means that they will be getting regular emails from me about lack of progress, and so will my A.M.

I hope for your sale that it gets sorted before the installation teams leave the area because then its anyone's guess if/when you will get upgraded.

Superfarce.. whoever coined that was so right.

Yes, the cabinet really was there! Installed on Monday, and was definitely still there on Monday afternoon and evening, and at least Tuesday morning - I didn't walk past again until today when I noticed it had gone!

It was one of the standard small sized cabinets like this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v486/dpaz/AwKT7RUC... (not my picture, found on Google Images) and was the only one I've seen installed so far in Tenby. I've seen the same workmen digging a hole next to a cabinet elsewhere in town, but that's still just a hole at the moment, whereas mine went from being a hole, to having a cabinet installed and the job completed, to having the cabinet removed and the hole filled in within a few days!

Luckily as I'm quite close to the exchange I get a very stable 16Mbps at the moment, so can live without fibre for the time being. But to see it installed and then just removed is madness!

As you say, "Superfarce" seems much more appropriate than "Superfast" - have been reading your other posts about your cabinet too - seems like they don't know what they're doing in Pembroke either!

Edited by deleted (Thu 14-Aug-14 22:11:35)

I wonder if it was supposed to be a larger one?

In reply to a post by cabinetspotter:

Yes, the cabinet really was there! Installed on Monday, and was definitely still there on Monday afternoon and evening, and at least Tuesday morning - I didn't walk past again until today when I noticed it had gone!

That's very ODD strange, why put it there in the first place then disappear! Not like BT at all.

Or an objection raised and council said to remove it e.g. path width objection on safety grounds maybe

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Or an objection raised and council said to remove it e.g. path width objection on safety grounds maybe

Yes but why is wayleave is accepted in the first place?

One of our cabinets was installed and then later removed, it had been installed in an unsafe position on a corner. It was eventually installed further down the road.

Hi mate I'm on Tenby exchange too. Your cab was denied planning for some reason! There's no explanation just that it was turned down. The other one was the down the Green. See here for yours:

http://pcnpa.co.uk/default.asp?PID=506&APASID=NP/14/...

They've denied yours and the one at the Green but allowed one outside the Church (St Johns) where there's never been one before. Pembrokeshire Coast National Parks planning has waaaaay too much power!

The other 8 or 9 had their planning passed. I'm in Upper Hill Park and they were digging up the road at the bottom of the hill between the PCP (cab 3) and the Western Power sub station right opposite yesterday so looks like mine's going to be done soon. What is strange though is that they were also disc-cutting holes outside everyone's house on the way up the estate too - maybe FTTP??? I'm not that lucky surely

Edited by WelshWArrior (Fri 15-Aug-14 11:18:34)

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Yes but why is wayleave is accepted in the first place?

There is no wayleave on adopted highways. Wayleave applies to private land.

The only time full plans on public highways are presented for approval is in conservation areas where planning permission is required.

EDIT: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/4351332-re-... has the info - BT's contractors shouldn't have built the cabinet in the first place, communications fail.

Edited by deleted (Fri 15-Aug-14 11:14:21)