One down, now woman wants more unused poles to go

A campaigner who successfully persuaded a broadband company to remove an unused telegraph pole from her town says she hopes more providers will do the same.

Joyce Whittle, from Hedon, East Yorkshire, believes telecoms companies have been allowed to put up the poles too easily under the government's permitted development rules.

Broadband provider MS3 recently removed a redundant pole from Church Lane in Hedon, but said it had no plans to remove any more of its infrastructure, which was part of a network serving 23,000 customers.

Whittle said: "What we need to fight for is stopping telecoms companies putting up poles where they don't actually need to, where they can share infrastructure."

The pole was situated close to St Augustine's Church, in the centre of Hedon.

Whittle welcomed the decision to remove it, but said she believed hundreds of others were likely to remain in place across Hull and East Yorkshire.

The issue has been a contentious one in areas including Cottingham, Beverley and parts of east Hull after networks were built by MS3 and Connexin, which has since been bought by CityFibre.

Whittle said she hoped more unused poles would be removed, particularly now that rival providers can access an underground network owned by KCOM, the company that historically has been the main telecoms provider in the area.

Paul Brayford, a member of the parish council in Molescroft, a village adjoining Beverley, said CityFibre had removed some poles after identifying maintenance issues, but many remained unused.

"Our message is, 'Take them all down'," he said.

"Now KCOM will enable other internet service providers to use their ducts and share infrastructure, there's no need for those poles."

But he added: "I don't hold out much hope... It's going to cost them as much to remove them as it did to put them up."

MS3 said the Hedon pole had been removed for operational reasons rather than as part of a wider programme.

A spokesperson said: "We have no current plans to remove any of our current network infrastructure, which now has over 23,000 homes connected to our network, with well over 10,000 happily using poles for their better value, faster broadband."

CityFibre, which bought Connexin's infrastructure last year, said it continued to review the network it inherited.

A spokesperson said: "Following our acquisition of existing infrastructure last year, we've taken a close look at what's in place.

"To date, we've carried out work on 200 poles and continue to review exactly how we can simplify the existing infrastructure as we continue to transform what's on offer to people across the area."

For campaigners such as Whittle, the removal of a single pole represents a rare victory.

Whether it marks the beginning of a wider clear-up, however, remains far less certain.

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