Residents on second Wigan estate fight plans for fibre broadband telegraph poles

People living on Ashton’s Woodedge estate have been fighting plans for 20 poles which they say would spoil the “aesthetics” of the area.

Now, residents on the Mucklow estate are campaigning against similar plans from high speed fibre broadband provider Brsk.

They believe around 50 poles could be placed on their estate and work could begin within weeks, as planning permission is not needed.

Karen Claridge, who has lived on Mucklow for four years, said: “They said they will use the underground cables where they exist, but there’s very little on the Mucklows estate.

"Currently we have a lot of places without telegraph poles and it’s a very pretty estate. We feel that not just the telegraph poles, but all the cabling hanging from house to house will look really ugly and ruin the estate.”

She believes residents on the estate do not need fibre broadband and if Brsk still wants to install it, they should go underground.

Ms Claridge said: “I work from home five days a week on a laptop and I don’t need fibre broadband. I have got a perfectly adequate internet connection.

"I have been round Fairview Close and most of the residents are elderly. Nobody will be subscribing to it, no-one needs it. In this particular close, there’s no business case for putting telegraph poles up and offering another broadband service.”

James Moseley, a resident on the estate for 15 years, said: “I know they are allowed to put the poles up, but it’s the aesthetics of it.

"The majority of the people on this estate are pensioners and don’t want full fibre broadband.”

More than 95 per cent of residents have signed petitions against the plans and more than 50 people attended a meeting last week to discuss the matter.

Coun Steve Jones is organising a public meeting for residents on both Mucklow and Woodedge estate, which will take place at Bryn Labour Club at 7pm on Thursday.

A spokesman for Brsk said its plan for fibre broadband in Ashton was “part of the Government directive to deliver gigabit-broadband services across the UK by 2030”.

They said: “As one of the UK’s fastest-growing full fibre broadband providers, Brsk is bringing the best technology available to Ashton-in-Makerfield years before the national deadline.

“Our teams have investigated and surveyed the existing infrastructure very carefully. We always endeavour to use existing BT Openreach infrastructure as much as possible, as this benefits our rollout in making it more efficient and less disruptive to the local area. The reason why the service cannot be installed underground on this particular estate is because there are no underground ducts that can be used, the existing Virgin Media network is a private network which isn’t open to any other providers.

“We are in the very early stages of planning the area and to date we have liaised with local residents, ward councillors and MPs, both proactively and in every instance when they have reached out to us. We will continue to engage and look forward to providing Ashton-in-Makerfield with a better standard of broadband.”