Openreach Line Removal

[Gone West]

Has anyone had an overhead telephone line removed by Openreach and what did it cost? I'm tempted to just disconnect from the house, coil it up and leave it on the pole. It hasn't provided a service for two months.

[Jeremy Harris]

We had a very long and drawn out problem getting an overhead line taken down.  In the end the local OpenReach manager suggested that the only way to get the job sufficiently up their priority list was to "accidentally" break it with the digger jib early one morning and then phone him immediately on his mobile to report it.  This worked like a dream, within 30 minutes a crew were out to remove the debris and reconnect the ready and waiting underground line.

 

I was told that jobs like this have such a low priority that OpenReach will never get around to doing them; they will always have higher priority tasks to do on any given day. I'd suggest just disconnecting it and coiling it up.  Be aware that there will be up to 50VDC on the line, so best to tape up the ends.

[Russell griffiths]

I have done this before, as you said coil it up neatly and hang it on a nail on the pole. 

[HerbJ]

Yes, Openreach removed my overhead supply before demolition in  late 2014/early 2015. As I remember, they were remarkably efficient with virtually no lead time and it cost nothing. One guy was on site and it took 30 minutes max.

[Gone West]

As an update. We have had a complaint made to Planning Enforcement about the time it is taking to demolish our bungalow. We had a visit from a Planning Enforcement Officer who went away quite happy that we are doing as we should in the time allotted. As someone local is not happy with us we decided to have the Openreach cable removed by Openreach. It turned out that removing an overhead cable to a property that is being demolished is the only free service Openreach offer. So the engineer turned up yesterday hooked a pole over the cable and pulled it down. He cut off the excess at each end and went away saying that was the quickest job he had ever done. Five minutes maximum.

[jack]

1 hour ago, PeterStarck said:

As an update. We have had a complaint made to Planning Enforcement about the time it is taking to demolish our bungalow. 

 

Oh FFS, what is wrong with people? Glad the planning officer saw sense.

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, PeterStarck said:

As an update. We have had a complaint made to Planning Enforcement about the time it is taking to demolish our bungalow. We had a visit from a Planning Enforcement Officer who went away quite happy that we are doing as we should in the time allotted. As someone local is not happy with us we decided to have the Openreach cable removed by Openreach. It turned out that removing an overhead cable to a property that is being demolished is the only free service Openreach offer. So the engineer turned up yesterday hooked a pole over the cable and pulled it down. He cut off the excess at each end and went away saying that was the quickest job he had ever done. Five minutes maximum.

 

What? You've only got a couple of neighbours haven't you?

 

Jealous f***ers probably! 

[newhome]

2 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

What? You've only got a couple of neighbours haven't you?

 

Jealous f***ers probably! 

 

In my case (I only have a couple of neighbours too) it was busy bodies from the village community council who were doing the constant complaining to the council so not necessarily a direct neighbour. Ours was over really petty things like where my neighbour put his bins on collection day, a workman parking outside my house when unloading (they called the police for that one and there are no parking restrictions here!), my garage being built (allowed under permitted development). Went on endlessly all because they hadn’t wanted the 2 houses built here. Someone else obviously became the object of their pettiness after a while because it stopped. 

[joe90]

After two years of putting up with a sh**y neighbour I know what you mean. Some people just need to get a life!. The only reason I did not stand up to our neighbour (apart from legally through the council planning process) was he has already been done for GBH so didn’t fancy my chances ?. He has since gone bankrupt, house sold at auction and gone to upset someone else.

[Gone West]

7 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

What? You've only got a couple of neighbours haven't you?

 

Jealous f***ers probably! 

Yup, and they're both up for sale. Must have been something I said or they don't like living near half dismantled bungalows .

[Gone West]

6 hours ago, joe90 said:

After two years of putting up with a sh**y neighbour I know what you mean.

The odd thing is we've never had any local complaints right through from the planning stage to the end of the build. Perhaps taking eight years to build it was just too much for them.

[newhome]

3 minutes ago, PeterStarck said:

Yup, and they're both up for sale. Must have been something I said or they don't like living near half dismantled bungalows .

 

I guess they think it might impact the purchase price of their houses maybe? Still a chance to get new decent neighbours.