Well it's certainly prevented them from bringing the fibre cables down the originally intended footpath, however the current roadworks listing mentions a "section 58 reinstatement" applies - not exactly sure what that means, but I assume it means they have permission.

No prizes for guessing what's happened. Hopefully it's just being relisted for a later date, but I they'll have to call it a day at some point.

A quick google suggests "section 58" could be a dealbreaker.

This sections allows councils to ban roadworks for a 3-5 year period because major roadwork have just been done. Presumably it is meant to protect a nice pristine surface.

When they are going to do this, the council sends out a 3-month notice, so that utilities can hussle with any outstanding work before the ban starts.

There are exemptions (including new connections), but it isn't obvious what applies to upgrading broadband.

Work appears to have been granted after all. How much this affects our cabinet I don't know...

The section 58 thing is particularly irritating - our cabinet had been due for upgrade years before the recent resurfacing works. It will be very annoying if the upgrade works are now delayed for years because they kept postponing the upgrade beyond the resurfacing.

I'm hoping that this will be the last set of roadworks required, possibly with the exception of the electrical supply, although I wouldn't imagine that it's a huge issue.

I have a feeling that they've already installed cable ducts under the Tom Ln footpath down to our cabinet, so it should just be a matter of routing fibre cables to our cabinet once these blockages are removed.

I didn't see it, but apparently BT were doing some works today. Certainly on the road in front of the golf course. Also seen measuring the distance down the little lane, and between the two cabinets. Sounds like some progress at last...

Well at least we know that it's related to our cabinet now - I was worried that it may be fibre cabling for any nearby SFSY works which may be going on (I know they're planning on putting up a new cab near my postcode).

I'd imagine that the fibre cables will be routed and installed next week (assuming that ducts are already in the footpath), and then it's all down to the power connection, which may be a while if the section 58 gets in the way (but I think I've read that they're exempt from it).

Cheers for the update, I appreciate it.

Edited by thebigdolphin1 (Tue 28-Feb-17 19:26:37)

"Measuring distances" sounds like the kind of thing they need to do to figure out where a blockage is, before digging.

Well that'd match up with the current ongoing work listed on roadworks. Any ideas on how long it might take them to move onto the cabling stage after all blockages have been cleared?

Anything from a day to a year.

It all depends on the availability of the relevant teams required to do the work.