East Yorkshire communities join forces in continued fight against telegraph poles

Matt Price spoke to residents at the demonstration.

Residents fighting the installation of broadband poles near their homes held a demonstration outside a council's headquarters today.

Campaigners across East Yorkshire say the telegraph poles are unsightly and unnecessary and have been fighting their installation for months.

Today they held a demonstration outside the East Riding of Yorkshire Council headquarters.

One protestor said: "They should be taking the residents views into account."

Another said: "No community engagement, they haven't spoken to people, they literally turn up outside your house."

One person campaigning said: "Not good enough, not fair."

A councillor who described the situation as a 'pole pandemic' successfully tabled a motion asking the authority to write to the communications watchdog OFCOM, calling for a review.

Cllr Coleen Gill hopes an emergency review into the erection of poles will hault proceedings.

She said: "We can get OFCOM to look at different alternatives to what they are doing at the moment and persuade OFCOM to look at it seriously to see that we can stop this sort of pandemic of poles."

Changes to the law since April 2022 mean operators can put up poles without having to apply to councils for planning permission.

But campaigners say the poles, which are usually installed in quiet suburban streets, are unsightly and unnecessary and have been fighting their installation for months.

Cllr Steve Gallant said: "In new build areas all the existing infrastructure is underground, there's no need for poles in those areas, it's a blight when you come to a nice medieval market town like Hedon, it's a real blot on the landscape."

One of the firms involved with the installation, Connexin, said: "Over 70 per cent of local residents say they want more broadband competition which is why we are building out our consumer network.

"When building, we are always driven to minimise disruption to communities and therefore our preference is to limit the use of new infrastructure, wherever possible, when building out our superfast broadband network. Where we are able to share ducts and poles, we are already doing so. In areas with Openreach infrastructure, such as Leven, Tickton and Brandesburton, we are using their existing ducts and poles through a regulated infrastructure sharing process. The issues arise where, in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire, KCOM are the dominant infrastructure owner rather than Openreach. This is because KCOM are not regulated to share infrastructure in the same way that Openreach. It makes access to KCOM’s network fraught with obstacles.  

"We have made multiple attempts to work with KCOM under the government's Access to Infrastructure (ATI) regulations, but these processes are not effectively regulated. This resulted in months and months of back and forth with no progress.  Following legal advice we are continuing to push KCOM to share their network infrastructure in the same way Openreach do nationally, under the Significant Market Power (SMP) obligations. We expect to make progress on this in 2024.

"At the moment, we still do not have permission to access the KCOM network, so we have no choice but to use our own telegraph poles, especially where it would be difficult or highly disruptive to dig new underground ducting. 

"Although the law permits us to build our own network without having to consult residents of the areas where we will supply our service, we work with the Local Authority and community representatives to try and ensure we make the best decision possible on pole locations for all parties. In Cottingham, for example, where our work is more than 60% complete, we have managed to avoid putting poles in the heart of the village conservation area.

"We are grateful to our local MPs, Councillors and individual residents who have helped bring to the attention of the Government and Ofcom the unique situation in Hull and the East Riding, where KCOM is still not effectively regulated to share infrastructure in the same way that Openreach is in this region and elsewhere in the UK."

MS3, also involved in installing poles, denied to comment.

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