Residents' fury at plans to install telegraph poles on Wigan housing estate

Letters were sent to properties on the Woodedge estate in Ashton to inform householders that 20 poles would be erected by high speed fibre broadband provider Brsk.

But residents are strongly opposed and say they would spoil the “aesthetics” of the estate, which does not currently have a single telegraph pole.

They say they do not need improved internet access and accuse Brsk of failing to engage with residents.

Michelle Ellison, who has lived on the estate for 13 years, said: “As part of planning permission when the estate was built, all the wires had to be underground. There is a high proportion of relatively elderly people on the estate who bought the houses off-plan and have no interest in getting 1GB broadband. It’s not really something there’s any demand for at all.

"No resident engagement has been done. What have they done to establish there is demand for this?”

The scheme does not need planning permission from the local authority and is part of a Government initiative to roll out fibre broadband across the country.

But residents are attempting to stop it going ahead and have a petition opposing the plans, with 272 signatures so far.

Ashton councillor Danny Fletcher said: “I fully support the views of local residents. Brsk need to listen to the Ashton community.

“I’ve met with Woodedge campaign organisers to advise on how best to demonstrate to Brsk that the telegraph pole proposal is not wanted. This included a petition, which campaigners have now secured 96 per cent against Brsk’s proposal.

“I now expect Brsk to rethink the telegraph pole proposal, consult residents and seriously consider other ways to implement this infrastructure.

“I feel the community as a whole are not against improving the broadband infrastructure in Ashton, we know this has been a problem for many years. However, the tools being used, such as telegraph poles, I personally feel is a step backwards.”

A spokesman for Brsk said Ashton residents do not have access to full fibre broadband and had been “historically misled” into believing they had the most advance option.

She said: “We are in the very early stages of our rollout in Ashton. The area is being surveyed to determine what infrastructure exists already and what infrastructure is viable for us to use – which is actually better for us as it means our rollout is deployed quicker with less disruption.

"Where there is no infrastructure or it’s not possible for us to use existing underground ducts or telegraph poles, we will carefully consider what other options there are, ie installing our own telegraph poles.

"To date no build work has been started yet, and no infrastructure changes or additions have been made.”

She said the firm does not have permission to use Virgin Media’s underground ducting on the estate and there is no Openreach infrastructure underground available, which is why it needs to install telegraph poles.

Brsk was working “collaboratively” with the local authority to keep residents informed and letters were sent to residents in December and January, with further engagement planned for next month, she said.