Branches Hitting Line

Hi everyone,

When we were on ADSL, our line would continuously drop out due to water ingress caused by branches rubbing on the line. I went and had a look at the "culprits" and found that yet again even after they were cut back years ago, they have grown and are hitting the line. I have a worrying feeling that it won't be long before we run into similar problems again.

Can you report to Openreach about trees hitting the line or only actual damage/lines physically down on the ground?

Thanks,

William

Edited by deleted (Sat 25-Feb-17 16:12:45)

No harm in telling Openreach, assuming the trees are not on your property.

They're not, luckily. If the problems arise, we'll let them know. Thanks.

They won't do anything about the branches hitting the line. Otherwise as Michael said. But I doubt if they will even record it in the line records.

Oh boy do they have our line records! You want to know the history of our line, a mess!

I know there's issues, check my line on MDWS, quite windy today and recent rain, water ingress present.

Edited by deleted (Sat 25-Feb-17 18:10:47)

Oh boy do they have our line records! You want to know the history of our line, a mess!

Nope after sometime (6 months ? ) any job notes aganist your tel no are wiped

Oh right, thanks for letting me know.

Normally they will only lop branches if the service goes off

If the trees are on the verge of the road you can complain to the council

They border an allotment. Like I said, work has been done in the past, just seems like more work needs to be done and after a lot of wind and rain recently, the problem could occur again.

In reply to a post by 961a:

Normally they will only lop branches if the service goes off

I expect that you are right. I wonder if Openreach were split from BT whether they would adopt a more considerate approach to the end users. Maybe Ofcom should introduce some large penalties where services fail after a warning has been given.

They possibly need permission from the tree-owner. Unless dealing with it is essential for some reason.

I would have thought that any wayleave would allow them to keep trees clear of the lines.

Can't the guys in the allotment do some mild pruning to clear your lines? OR won't do anything with them until they're damaged, imagine the amount of work to proactively cut all the trees from around OR line plant.

You assume they have a wayleave . Even if they have, trees planted later are still not their property to hack at.

Thinking back, I don't think normal housing estates have wayleaves over gardens? I don't think there is one in my deeds. There is one for water and sewage utilities who may need to dig.

Openreach can do almost anything they like of course on the public footpaths. As long as it isn't a conservation area. Something called Code Powers.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 25-Feb-17 22:25:24)

They probably will...

There is a BT phone cable that runs above the bottom of my garden. It does not supply my house. Quite possibly I have an offending tree. There is certainly no wayleave.

Gigaclear did pay me £40 for a wayleave which I think is because the cable going to my neighbour's house follows the cable to my house and then goes next door, a distance of about 1 foot on the corner of my property.

I expect Openreach stuff comes under "Code powers".

I had a similar problem some months ago and when I contacted BT I was told it was not their problem it was the landowners and BT would do nothing until the line failed at which point they would repair/replace the line and bill the landowner for the tree cutting.
When I pointed out that the landowner was an extremely old lady who was in no fit state to organise anything and now is in a nursing home they just reiterated what I had already been told.
Seems to me common sense should have prevailed and they should have organised the tree cutting. When the telephone line was initially installed some 35 to 40 years ago they must have surely obtained consent to enter the field to carry out the installation and obtained permission to re enter for maintenance. In fact in the 2005 storm they entered both my premises and the field to install a new telegraph pole and replace the line to my property. I know for a fact that neither my permission or my neighbours were obtained to do the work and when we returned from holiday I only realised that BT had been in my garden when I came across a bit of old cabling.

Edited by corsa57 (Sat 25-Feb-17 23:12:21)

It occurs to me that you never see trees near high voltage, (132kv and above) National Grid overhead power lines, so clearly trees are stopped from growing near them. When it comes to local distribution, e.g. 11kv, trees are stopped from growing directly under the lines, I have seen this being done. However they are not very good at stopping trees growing near the lines, which is why I have suffered several power cuts caused by falling trees. My view is that the local electricity distribution companies should cut the trees before they become a problem.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

There is a BT phone cable that runs above the bottom of my garden. It does not supply my house. Quite possibly I have an offending tree. There is certainly no wayleave.

Gigaclear did pay me £40 for a wayleave which I think is because the cable going to my neighbour's house follows the cable to my house and then goes next door, a distance of about 1 foot on the corner of my property.

Gigaclear run fibre overhead?